


When You’re Down (I’ll Pick You Up)

by Thebonemoose



Category: King Falls AM (Podcast)
Genre: Happy Ending, Intricate Rituals, Journalist AU, M/M, Media Company AU, Multi, Mutual Pining, Office AU, Pining Sammy, Slow Burn, no beta we die like men, pining Jack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:55:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 42,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21929323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thebonemoose/pseuds/Thebonemoose
Summary: In which Jack is a gay disaster, Sammy is a phenomenal journalist, Ben is a delight, and Emily is the greatest person alive.A journalist/office/media company au to keep you warm in the cold months of the hiatus.
Relationships: Ben Arnold & Sammy Stevens, Ben Arnold/Emily Potter, Emily Potter & Jack Wright, Sammy Stevens/Jack Wright
Comments: 80
Kudos: 147





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Im back babey, and this time I’m trying to write something with multiple chapters! 
> 
> No promise, but I’ll do my darndest to update either regularly or with the rest of it all in one time. I have no idea how long this is going to be, but I do have a fairly good idea of where it’s going. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this, please comment and let me know if you liked it (or if you want to scream about episode 100).
> 
> Title is from Watsky’s song “Limo 4 Emos”

There was a crease in between Sammy Steven’s eyebrows, and it was incredibly problematic. 

He scrunched up his nose and pushed his glasses up, then leaned back in his office chair. He looked displeased. Sammy seemed to stare off into the distance for a second, brow furrowed, and that little crease was even more prominent. Then he narrowed his eyes, only for them to widen a moment later as he leaned forward onto his desk to type furiously on his keyboard for several minutes. 

How was Jack supposed to get any work done in this environment? 

He dropped his head in his hands.

Sammy was a freelance journalist, and he had been contracted temporarily by the media company Jack worked for. Which meant that Jack would have at least four months to gaze adoringly at Sammy instead of doing his own work. 

Needless to say, Jack was struggling with this.

It wasn’t even just that Sammy was a beautiful, beautiful man. It was that he was a damn fine writer, and yes, a phenomenal journalist.

Jack ignored the little voice in his head that sounded a lot like Lily calling him a turncoat and a coward. 

He returned his attention to his laptop. There was still a fair amount of formatting left to do for this piece, and he promised Emily he’d help her with her with her report at lunch. If he wanted to be done with this in time, he’d need to work quickly.

He pursed his lips, and his eyes flitted back to Sammy, across the room. He was adjusting his glasses. Jack was pretty sure they weren’t prescription, because he only seemed to wear them when he was working. Reading glasses maybe?

Jack winced, realizing how stalker-y his train of thought had gotten. He was being ridiculous, he knew. This strange infatuation he had with his writing-hero-turned-coworker was getting out of hand. 

With a sigh, he stood and grabbed the empty coffee mug on his desk, and walked to the kitchen. 

He very purposefully DID NOT LOOK AT SAMMY. Besides, he had better things to do, like get coffee.

...except there was no more left in the pot, and whoever had finished it off had not made a new pot. Great. Some real team players in this office, that was for damn sure.

He dumped the wet, used coffee filter in the trash and grabbed a fresh one, filling it with enough coffee grinds to make ten cups. He added the water, washed the pot, and set it back in the machine. Then Jack switched the coffee maker on, and pivoted in a way that somehow managed to be both irritated and self-satisfied simultaneously-

Only to narrowly avoid barreling into Sammy, who had come up behind him with an empty mug, himself.

Jack shrieked and jerked backwards, but he lost his balance, and nearly fell over, if it weren’t for two (strong) arms wrapping around him.

Which left Jack looking up at Sammy’s beautiful face, held in his beautiful arms, with Sammy still holding his empty mug in one hand. He blinked. Sammy blinked back.

“Ahem,” said one of Jack’s coworkers, who he suddenly decided to hate ferociously. “Is there coffee?” He stood in the entrance of the kitchen and looked bored. Jack took a second to hate him even harder, 

Sammy straightened up, pulling Jack with him, and disentangled himself. “Oh, it’s uh, it’s being made.” Sammy repliefd, and the coworker sighed and left, grumbling quietly. 

Then Sammy turned to Jack. “You alright there?” He asked, a playful (but not unkind) grin widening on his face.

Jack nodded without really meaning to. “Y-yeah! Thanks, for that. Sorry I almost ran into you.” His cheeks were probably bright scarlet, and Jack attempted some quick mental math to figure the odds of Sammy not noticing.

He gave up on the math, but figured that odds amounted to… well, not likely.

“Oh, no, I’m sorry I scared you, I didn’t mean to sneak up on you, I was just… looking for coffee,” Sammy smiled lamely and held his coffee mug loosely from his fingers. 

“Oh, it’ll be ready in a few minutes. I should probably get back to work, in the meantime. But thanks again for catching me,” Jack chuckled nervously and made a swift exit.

He speed walked back to his desk and hunched over it, his head once again in his hands. 

Sammy had been wearing his glasses pushed up on his head, and the sight was almost too much to bear. 

He groaned to himself. He needed Emily. Hopefully she’d know what to do. 

With a sigh, he began to work on his formatting. 

A few weeks back, when Jack had heard (via breakroom gossip) that his company was contracting a freelancer for a little while, Jack really did not care. And why should he? The company did things like that all the time, and it had never much mattered before. It was a bit like having temps. They weren’t there, and then they were. And then, later, they weren’t again. 

But then Jack discovered who the freelancer was, and the floor dropped out from under him.

And, okay, it wasn’t like Jack had NEVER considered the possibility that they might someday meet. Sammy Stevens and Jack Wright were both journalists in the same city. There were only so many journalistic circles you could run in, here. But until then, Jack had his circles, and Sammy had others. Now, the circles were less like circles and more like Venn Diagrams, and Jack began to lose sleep over it.

It’s not that he hadn’t been excited to actually meet his hero. But he was also incredibly daunted, because he was meeting THE Sammy Stevens, who had such a powerful grasp of language that at times, reading his work made Jack feel like he was being swept away. They were informative and poignant and relatable and funny, even. But the thing Jack loved most about Sammy’s writing? 

Jack loved how human it was. Sammy wrote about human experiences, and he did it in a way that was so gratifying and so personal and respectful that Jack could not help but be enamored, at least with his writing.

But then Jack saw a picture of Sammy online, which had made his writing-crush into more of a celebrity crush.

And then Jack actually met Sammy, and he was nice, and caught random falling coworkers, and now it was a Bona-fide crush-crush. 

This was Problematic. 

He’d spent a lot of time around Emily, during Sammy’s early days at the company. He’d start out at his desk, but then Sammy would do something like twirl a pen around in his fingers, or redo his bun, and it made Jack want to scream and punch a wall, so he’d walk to Emily’s side of the world.

By which he meant the closest thing his building had to a basement, where Emily had holed herself up digitizing the old articles from decades ago. 

Emily always helped. She was so nice and reasonable, and she was probably the only person in the company who knew he was gay. Jack wasn’t actively trying to hide it, but he also had absolutely no desire to talk to his coworkers about his personal life. Well, most of them, anyway. 

But Emily was different. She was genuine and unassuming, but Jack could tell that she was secretly a major badass. She wouldn’t take any shit, but she would also be a shoulder to cry on or a voice of reason if you needed it. 

Jack took a moment to be thankful for her before opening the door to her office. 

Well, “office” was pretty generous. It was a dingy room filled with shelves of old newspapers and records, and in one small corner, there was a desk with a computer and an indoor plant. And behind the desk was one Ms. Emily Potter.

She looked up as he entered, and smiled at him. “Lunch time already?” She asked. 

Jack sighed dramatically and held up his Tupperware full of leftovers. “Seems like. What’s on the agenda today, boss?”

“Well, I told you about the report, but there’s also some… interesting articles from a few decades back, and I thought you might like to take a look.” She raised her eyebrows at him.

“Interesting how?”

“Interesting as in paranormal.” She nodded to a small pile of papers and files on a corner of her desk. 

“Emily, you’re an angel. A godsend. You’re a queen amongst swine, a rose in the weeds, a...a…”

“Great friend and coworker?” She asked with a teasing grin.

He nodded emphatically. “Yes! That.” He pulled up a spare chair and sat down by pile of articles. 

He was silent for a moment, but then opened his mouth. “Em?”

“What’s up?” She looked at him over her monitor. Her glasses started to slip down her nose, and she fixed them absentmindedly. 

He smiled at her fondly for a moment, but then schooled his features, and stared at her solemnly. “I swear, if I was straight, I’d marry you so fast.” 

Emily smiled. “Aw. Good thing you’re not, though.” 

He mock-winced. “Ouch, Potter.”

“I meant it in a good way!” 

“Good? That is a neutral statement at best! How is that good? You don’t wanna marry me?

“Like… I like you the way you are! And also, it’s adorable that you think we would ever work romantically.” 

He quirked his head. “Fair. You and My sister, though… that could be a good match,” he said, with practiced casualty.

“Your sister who is in love with her married podcast producer?” Emily raised an eyebrow. 

“Okay, I was exaggerating slightly when I said that. I think they’re just close friends and then Lily may also be harboring a crush. But if she met you, I mean… who’s to say, y’know?”

Emily laughed. “Read your ghost stories, Wright. Leave the matchmaking to me. Speaking of, how’s Sammy?” She looked at him with a smug expression.

He took it all back. Emily was a terrifying force of nature, not to be underestimated.

Jack groaned. “Fucking BEAUTIFUL. As usual. I kept staring at him instead of working. Then I got up to get coffee and also to stop staring at him for like, 0.5 seconds. Except I had to make more because whoever finished the pot did NOT replenish our stores, because I guess they were raised in a barn, or perhaps a large shed. Anyways, when I turned around, who is there in my personal space but Mister Fucking Man Bun himself, and so I screamed and windmilled backwards and nearly broke my head on the ground. But then he caught me, because he’s too fucking good to be true. Stop laughing at me, this is horrible!”

Emily valiantly tried to stifle her giggles. Eventually she calmed down enough to speak. “I’m sorry, I just- I like this for you. You haven’t dated anyone in months, I think Sammy could be good for you.” 

“You’re missing a few pretty big Ifs there, Em.”

“What, because you don’t know if he likes guys yet?”

“Well, yeah, for starters, but also because I don’t know if he’d like me even if he is gay.”

“Why wouldn’t he, you’re amazing.” 

“Okay, first off, stop saying nice things to me or I’m gonna start crying. Secondly, yes, but I’m also weird and obsessed with paranormal activity and I forget to take care of myself sometimes, and like, I don’t know. I guess I just feel like most people probably want to date someone who’s better at being a human being than I am.” Jack looked down at the desk, and picked at a sliver of wood with his thumbnail. 

That had gotten… very personal, very quickly. It’s not that he didn’t talk about personal stuff with Emily, but when he did it was usually not over chicken curry leftovers and files of paranormal data. 

He knew without even raising his gaze from the desk that Emily was looking at him with that understanding, caring look, the one that said “I love you, I get what you mean, but you’re wrong and I’m about to tell you why.” He met her eyes. 

“Jack, I-“ 

“No, Emily, it’s okay. I’m alright, really, I just-“ he trailed off. “I just really don’t think anything could ever happen between Sammy and I— not that I ever expected anything really—but still. I should just focus on getting over this crush and doing my job.”

“Well, alright. If you’re sure,” Emily said kindly. He nodded at her. 

“So, do you still need my help with that report?” 

She smirked. “No, actually. It turned out to be easier than I expected. You’re free to read all the spooky tales you like.”

“Hell yes! I love you, Emily, I really do.” 

The slight tension dissipated as he eagerly opened up a file. She rolled her eyes at him and they each went about their work, and the room was filled with the sounds of eating and papers flipping. 

Several glorious minutes passed, but just as Jack was nearing the bottom of the stack, he got a text. His supervisor needed him back upstairs for a meeting. He sighed, and Emily quirked her eyebrow at him. “Duty calls, Potter. I have a project meeting. But thank you for the reading material, and good luck on your report.” He stood and stretched, then grabbed his empty Tupperware.

“Bye, Jack. Good luck with Sammy!” She sang. He stuck his tongue out at her and left, a fond smile gracing his features. 

He made the trek back upstairs and deposited his empty container at his desk, then walked to Conference Room B. There weren’t many people there yet, so Jack got to have his pick of the seating.

He took a spot by the door and watched his coworkers file in as the clock ticked closer to the meeting time. Finally, his supervisor arrived, and started organizing her agenda as she sat. 

Jack absentmindedly realized Sammy wasn’t there, which was strange. He was a part of the same team of journalists as Jack and his coworkers, so, theoretically, he would also be in the project meetings. But apparently not, Jack supposed it was different for contractors.

Then a presence slid in beside him, and Sammy, slightly breathless, glasses up on his head, asked “is it alright if I sit here?” And Jack could only nod.

His boss got started, handing out assignments and taking input, but Jack had her tuned out. He couldn’t pull his attention away from the man beside him, who appeared to be a much better listener than Jack. He looked at their supervisor with a respectful awareness, and Jack was just figuring he should do the same when she called his name. 

He looked up at her.

“You and Sammy are together on this next one, alright? It’s not much research, which I know is your strong suit, but there’s some information that I need you to organize before you get started. I’m sure the two of you can work it out. Any questions?”

“No,” Sammy said.

“Nope,” Jack lied. 

The supervisor moved on, and Sammy gave him a small smile, which Jack did his best to return. He was pretty sure it looked more like a wince, though. 

The meeting ended shortly after, and Sammy and Jack left the conference room with the rest of the employees. 

“When do you wanna get started?” Jack asked as they walked back to their desks.

Sammy frowned. “I have to finish my current piece, but I could theoretically be done with that tomorrow. Let’s say we meet up and discuss it after lunch tomorrow?” 

Jack nodded, and Sammy smiled and said a small “bye” that Jack didn’t have the chance to respond to, and then Sammy went back to his desk. 

Jack slumped over in his office chair. He was on a project with Sammy Stevens. Meaning he would have to work closely with Sammy Stevens. They might even need to exchange phone numbers. 

He blew out a breath and bit his lip. Emily. He needed Emily.

Except he had already ventured down to the pseudo-basement once today, and going again so soon after he just went would look suspicious. His supervisors were not fond of duty-shirkers. He hunched over his keyboard and tried to look busy.

He would email her, that’s what he would do. He would use their discreet code, and hide it amidst normal work topics, and nobody would be the wiser.

He opened a draft and began to type.

Emily,

(911) I seem to have run into a somewhat (SOS) urgent (EMERGENCY!!!) snafu, and would appreciate your input. Please stop by my desk at your earliest convenience (ASAP!!!!!!!!!!!).

Best Regards,

Jack Wright

He pressed send.

Her reply came surprisingly quick.

Jack,

(wtf.) ?

Kindly, 

Emily Potter

He groaned and tugged at a strand of hair. What was the issue? He could not have been clearer. He typed a response. 

Emily,

As PER MY LAST EMAIL, I require your assistance. Please come see me NOW.

Thank you,

Jack Wright

He gnawed on his cheek and waited for her email. The clock ticked on the wall behind him. His coworkers clicked and typed and make other such computer noises. Jack wanted to scream. 

Her reply came in.

Jack, 

Why are you acting like you’re my boss? We’re in completely separate departments. Technically, the only boss I have is the CEO. 

And anyways, you’re a journalist, Jack. You’re a much better writer than this. You could, theoretically, be coherent. It might speed things up. Just a thought.

Xoxo,

Emily Potter

He groaned. 

Emily,

FINE. SAMMY AND I WERE PAIRED ON A PROJECT AND IM DECEASED I NEED YOUR HELP. 

RED ALERT, DUDE!

xoxox,

Jack Wright

Her response was almost instantaneous.

Jack,

On my way!!!

Xoxoxo xoxo xoxo

Emily Potter

He snorted and turned around just in time to see her speed walking down the hallway. She stopped by his desk and crouched down, slightly out of breath.

“Would you like some water, Usain Bolt?” Jack said sarcastically and waved his water bottle at her.

She rolled her eyes but took the metal container and unscrewed the lid. She took a healthy swig and gave the bottle back to Jack.

“Why didn’t you just tell me?” She asked finally, and he shrugged. 

“I thought you’d understand my code,” he confessed.

Her eyebrows bunched up. “Code? What code?”

He gaped. “Wha- my code! With the secret messages! I was being subtle!”

Emily’s eyebrows shot up. “Jack, honey, that was not subtle. You wouldn’t know subtle if it proposed to you via flashmob.”

“Ew, dated reference.”

She shoved him and rolled her eyes. She always reminded him of Lily when she did that. 

“Em, I don’t know what you’re talking about, I can totally be subtle! Stop looking at me like that!”

Emily did not stop looking at him like that, and ‘like that’ meant ‘in an extremely doubting and un-confident way’.

“Well, anyways, I get that this is a really juicy piece of information, but why is this a crisis? This is an opportunity, Jack.”

He snorted. “An opportunity to, what? Make a fool of myself?” 

“Well, you could do your job for once,” she said, and shrugged.

“Okay, that’s-“ he hesitated. “Fair, admittedly. We’re meeting after lunch tomorrow.”

“Oooh!”

“To do work, Emily.” 

“Still, though! That’s closer to being friendly coworkers than you were today!” 

He huffed. “I guess!”

“Jack, look at me.” He turned to look at her, still crouched beside his desk. “You’ve got this. You’re a skilled journalist with a lot to offer, you’re hot as hell, and you’re fun to be around. If Sammy doesn’t end up seeing that, he can’t be as good as you think,” she told him, gently. 

“Thanks, Mom,” her mumbled. She flicked him in the eyebrow. 

“Get back to work, Champ.” She stood and stretched out her back. 

“Eugh, get out of here, I’m flashing back to fifth grade.” Jack waved her away. 

“Do I need to tell you about the birds and the bees, Jacky?”

She laughed and walked back down the hallway as he pretended to retch. 

She was right, of course. He should just get to work. Focus on the job first, worry about making friends with his crush after. So he got to work, and before long it was time to clock out. 

Jack left the building in a horde of other tired employees, and dialed his sister as he walked to his car.

“What’s up, Jack?” She answered.

“Hey, Lily. You busy?” He started the car and peeled out of the parking lot.

“Not particularly. Something wrong?” 

“No, no, all good. I do have a bit of a personal life update, though.” 

He could hear the intrigue in her tone. “Do tell, sir.” 

“So, you know that journalist I like?” 

“Yeah, the freelancer who’s working with you now. Steven something?”

“Sammy Stevens.” 

“Right! Yeah, I remember. He’s… okay,” she said slowly.

He almost laughed. “He’s better than that, and you know it. He’s a phenomenal journalist, Lil.” 

“Jack Wright, you take that back. You know I’m trying to get that copyrighted. You’re a traitor and a coward; I’m writing you out of my will.”

“Oh no, whatever will I do without inheriting my sister’s lesbian porn collection,” he remarked drily, and she scoffed at him.

“It’s not just lesbian porn, I also have a few harlequin novels. Real ‘simple farm girl meets worldly traveler masquerading as a man’ type stuff.” 

“Tempting as that sounds, I think I’m good.” 

“Won’t you miss me when I’m dead?” 

He declined to answer. “So, anyways, Sammy and I are now partnered on a project, and tomorrow we are meeting up after lunch to discuss it.” 

“Why do you sound so put out? This is great news, you can finally seduce the guy and I can stop hearing about his dreamy eyes or whatever.”

“Firstly, I never actually mentioned his eyes, I said he looked dreamy wearing glasses. Secondly, I’m not gonna seduce him, I’m not you, Lily.” 

She made a pleased sound at that. 

“Thirdly, this means I have to interact with him without being a gay disaster. And as we both know, that is a tall order for me. Hence, my low-level panicking.” 

“Well- just… be yourself?” 

“You’re worse than Emily.” He parked in his driveway and got out.

“I don’t know! I don’t know how to give advice. Just… do your best.” 

“Ugh, thanks so much.” He unlocked his front door and pushed it open. 

“Yeah, my pleasure, Jack.” 

They were both quiet for a moment.

“Seriously, though, you’re gonna be fine, Jack. I know it’s… been a bit, since you’ve had a serious relationship. But you’re gonna be fine.” 

He sighed and leaned against the wall. “I… appreciate that. Still very weird to hear coming from you, though.”

“Fair enough. I actually need to get going, I have to meet up with Pippa.” 

“Tell her hi from me.”

“Will do. Bye, you nuisance.”

“Later hater,” he sang. 

She groaned and hung up. Jack chuckled to himself and tossed his keys on the credenza. He busted himself with light cleaning and a nice dinner, and spent the rest of his evening researching spontaneous human combustion. 

His morning came quickly, and soon he was chugging down a cup of coffee and sliding into his desk at work. The majority of his brain power after that was diverted to dreading and anxiously awaiting his rendezvous with Sammy in equal measures. The seconds ticked by, and Jack did as little work as possible until the unofficial lunch hour began. 

He met up with Emily, as he usually did, but he wasn’t as talkative as he normally was. He could tell that she noticed.

“Are you nervous?”

He scoffed. “No, no. I’m a grown man, I’m not nervous. This isn’t high school.”

“That was… very convincing, Jack.” She looked at him kindly.

He deflated. “Yes? Sort of? It’ll be fine. He’s a nice dude! I guess I just feel…” he was at a loss for words.

“Star struck?” Emily offered, and he nodded.

“Yeah. Star struck.”

And then lunch was over, and Sammy was at his desk asking where he wanted to go to talk about the project. 

“Um. I think conference room A is open?” 

Sammy nodded, and Jack followed him in, holding his laptop in his hands. They sat, and got situated, and then Sammy got right down to business.

“So, I know the supervisor said your strong suit was research, and that there wasn’t a whole lot of that in this project, but… I was wondering if I could do the research for this one?” Sammy had an expectant look on his face. 

“Sure! I don’t see why not.” Jack smiled, and shrugged.

“Great! And then- oh, did she email you the parameters?”

Jack furrowed his brow. “Let me check.” He searched his email and didn’t see anything from his boss. “No, I don’t think so.”

“Alright, I’ll forward it to you. What’s your email address?”

Jack told him, and Sammy forwarded the information. 

“Oof, this data she wants organized is pretty old.”

“How old?” Sammy asked, looking sideways at Jack’s screen.

“Like, I’m pretty sure Emily hasn’t even digitized them yet. Which is fine, I can go old school. Have you met Emily?” 

Sammy shook his head, and Jack grinned. 

“Oh, she’s spectacular. You gotta meet her. She works mostly in the lower levels of the building, right now. She convinced the CEO to let her digitize their old articles and records that were collecting dust down in the… well, for lack of a better word ‘basement’.”

“The… CEO?” Sammy was visibly confused.

“Technically, the CEO is her only superior.” 

“What? How?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never gotten her to tell me. But anyways, we can run down and grab that stuff now if you don’t mind?”

“Yeah, absolutely,” Sammy said, and stood.

They walked down to Emily, and chatted the entire way. Sammy had some interesting ideas for their project, which Jack really liked. 

“Knock-Knock,” Jack said, and walked into Emily’s space without actually knocking, followed by a slightly apprehensive Sammy.

Emily looked up from her spot crouched on the floor, files both open and stacked in a circle all around her. She stood as she saw Jack. “Hey, Jack!”

“Hey, Em, this is Sammy. Sammy, meet the incredible Emily Potter.”

Emily smiled at Sammy and shook his hand, but shot a look at Jack when Sammy wasn’t watching.

“What brings you guys down here?” Emily asked them.

“Oh, I need these files, they’re not digitized yet.” He handed her a piece of paper with the information written on it, and raised an eyebrow.

“You telling me to get a move on, Wright?” She asked, her voice taking on a playful rough quality.

Jack laughed. “Yeah, that’s what I’m doing.”

“Your facetiousness is not lost on me.” She deadpanned.

“I should hope not,” he said with a grin. Emily smiled at him, and then set about gathering the files he needed.

It was not a large stack, but it did take Emily a short while to find them all. In the meantime, she made friendly small talk with Sammy. 

“So, how are you liking it so far?” She asked, squatting down to look on a lower shelf. 

“‘It’ being what, exactly?” Sammy asked, his hands in his pockets. He looked down at her with a friendly expression.

“Oh, you know,” she said, flipping through a folder before reshelving it efficiently. “Working here. How does it compare to your other contracted ‘gigs’?” Emily grabbed a file and held it up to them.

Sammy and Jack looked at each other, then at her. She began waving the file around, still squatting on the ground, her head down. 

“A-are you- what… what is this?” Sammy asked, looking between Emily’s wildly waving arm and Jack, who felt just as confused as Sammy looked.

“Are you just gonna make me hold this file forever?” Emily still had not taken her face out of the bottom shelves, her other hand occupied with taking files out and putting them back (seemingly at random) after skimming their contents.

“Oh, sorry!” Sammy rushed forward and took the file from Emily, whose arm dropped to the floor instantly. 

She murmured a muffled, sincere “thank you.”

“No… problem? But, well, to answer your question… it’s nice! I like it. Interesting work, and it’s nice to have a 9 to 5, actually.” Sammy smiled.

Emily stood and stretched for a moment, and Jack winced at the audible pops her joints made. 

“Shit, Em, are you good?” Jack asked, his face tinged with something that was similar to disgusted worry.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I feel good, just noisy. The rest of the files should be in this box, let me grab it.” She hoisted down a cardboard box and lugged it over to her desk. She flipped through it in the same manner she had the other files, and pulled out a handful. “Okay, one, two, three, four, and-“ she plucked the file out of Sammy’s hands and put it on her stack. “Five. All accounted for, gents, now get out of my cave.” She said this with a smile and friendly tone, but Jack and Sammy did make to leave, even so.

“You’re a miracle, Potter!” Jack called on his way out, the stack of files held in his hands. .

“Don’t put me on a pedestal, Wright,” she replied, her eyebrow arched.

He just grinned. “Em, I think we both know I’m just about the only one who you’d let out you on a pedestal, and also one of the only ones who never would.” 

“Thats- well, that’s true.” She rolled her eyes.  
Jack left the room with a wink and a kiss blown in her direction. 

“Sammy, it was nice to meet you, please keep Jack on task and whatever you do, do NOT let him trick you into slacking off.” 

“I’ll do my best. See you later,” he replied with an amused grin, and she waved as he walked out. 

Jack was waiting for Sammy at the end of the hallway. “Ready to get some real work done?”

Sammy nodded. “Hey, can I ask you a question, though?” Same asked after a moment. His brow was slightly furrowed.

Jack was intrigued, and because he felt confident in how well he was handling his crush so far, (and also because saying no would be awkward) he said yes. 

“Are you and Emily, like, dating?”

Jack spluttered. “Uh. No. Assuredly not.” 

Sammy raised his eyebrows at that. It didn’t take a genius to see he was surprised.

“She’s my best friend, and my favorite person who isn’t related to me. Definitely my closest work friend. But uh, no, we will never date.”

“Alright. I just.. you guys seem very close,” Sammy said, neutrally.

Jack hummed. “We are. But it’s the kind of closeness that’s just… there’s no… chemistry? Like the idea really is laughable. I’d marry her for like, tax benefits, or immigration purposes, or a bet, even. But not for love.” He shrugged as they approached their desks.

“Huh. Well, I’m glad you guys are so close, then,” Sammy replied. 

“I’m with you there, Sammy. What about you? Any work friends to speak of? I know you haven’t been here too, long, but…” Jack trailed off, and looked at Sammy invitingly.

“Yeah, actually. My best friend— well, he’s my roommate, too— actually works here. He brought up my name when he heard they were looking to for an independent contractor.”

“Oh shit, nepotism?!” Jack gasped exaggeratedly, and it startled a laugh out of Sammy.

Oh. Jack would have to do that more often. Sammy had a good laugh. 

“Not quite. There was still a whole process, you know how it goes. But obviously, I got the job. Ben, my friend, actually works on the floor above us.”

“Hey, that’s cool. I think-“ jack was interrupted by his cell phone dinging. He fished it out of his pocket and saw a new text from Emily.

Emily: Stop flirting and get to work.

Jack furrowed his brow and looked around. 

Jack: Where are you???? How do you know what I’m doing?

Emily: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) 

Jack: wait how’d you do that

Emily: ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Jack: emILY

Emily: xxoxoxoxo 

(Read 12:29pm)

He looked up to see Sammy staring at him somewhat expectantly. “Oh my god, I’m so rude. I’m the rudest person ever.” 

Sammy laughed again. “It’s fine. You just sort of trailed off there, you good?”

Jack nodded and apologized again. He picked up a file. “Well, shall we start?” 

At Sammy’s agreement, they returned to the conference room and settled in to digitize and organize the information in the files for later use (and ease of access.)

After several hours, the work was mostly completed, and Sammy apologetically announced that he had to go, because his roommate had a dentist appointment, and they had carpooled. 

Jack didn’t mind finishing on his own, though. He smiled and said goodbye to Sammy, and slumped over when he was out of sight. He packed his things and returned to his desk. 

It’s not like the day hadn’t gone great, because it had. He and Sammy worked very well together. Everything was going swimmingly. But being around such an attractive person for an extended period of time took a toll, especially when they weren’t just a pretty face, like in Sammy’s case. So he had been worried about not only being obvious with his crush, but also trying to impress him as a coworker, and trying to impress him as an incredibly skilled writer who Jack admired greatly.

Therefore: exhausting. 

Jack shot up as he saw Sammy come back in, his satchel bag hanging from his shoulder. He beelined for Jack’s desk. 

“Hey,” he said, completely normally.

“Hey,” Jack responded slightly breathless. 

“Would you be willing to get together over the long weekend and brainstorm? We could get coffee, or something,” Sammy offered. He looked at Jack expectantly.

Say something, dumbass. A hot guy is asking if you want to get coffee this weekend. 

“Uh- sure! Yeah, that sounds good!” Jack winced internally at how loud his voice was, but Sammy didn’t seem to mind. He grinned, and dug his phone out from within his pocket. 

“Here, put your number in,” Sammy told him, and Jack took the phone and entered in his contact information. He debated taking a contact photo, and in a split second decided on yes. He took an extremely awkward selfie while Sammy looked on, which was, admittedly, not his best move for getting a guy to like him. 

Still, Sammy didn’t seem to mind. He was still smiling in amusement. 

Jack set the photo as his picture and handed it back. “So you don’t forget what I look like,” he explained. 

“I think there’s very little risk of that,” Sammy responded, and Jack felt his cheeks warm.

Sammy waved another quick goodbye, and Jack was free to slump on his desk in peace.

Then his phone buzzed. 

[Unknown Number]: 

[Unknown Number]: This is Sammy by the way. 

Jack: Hi Sammy :-)

(Read 3:57pm)

Yeah, Jack thought. I am well and truly fucked.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Featuring Sammy trying his best, shameless health disaster Ben, Emily scheming very briefly, and Jack, also trying his best.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, I’ve got the rest of my chapters planned out, so hopefully I can finish this before February at the latest. I’m thinking around 5-6k words each chapter. 
> 
> Also, if any of my Hanukkah information is inaccurate, please let me know! I’m not Jewish, and I’ll still be doing research, but if there’s anything I should add or take out, feel free to mention it. 
> 
> Enjoy!

“How was the dentist? Any cavities?” Sammy asked as Ben got in the car.

Ben glared at Sammy. “Yes.”

Sammy snorted and began to drive home. “That’s what you get for eating candy bars every day, Ben.”

“Yeah, thanks DAD.” Ben crosses his arms and looked out his window.

Surly as he may act, Sammy was not fooled. “So I take it you don’t want to hear about my meeting with my cute coworker?”

Ben dropped the annoyed facade immediately. “Oh my god, tell me everything.”

Sammy chuckled. Ben was as excitable as a golden retriever, and he had the attention span of one, too, it seemed. “There’s not much to tell. We met up, and we worked. He introduced me to his lovely friend, who I guess is an archivist. She helped us find some files, and then we organized them.”

Ben raised an eyebrow. “That’s it?” 

Sammy shrugged. “That’s it.”

Ben tutted. “That’s boring, man. I thought you had something juicy.” He slumped back in his seat, his head lolling against the window. “Wait, did you say archivist?”

Sammy nodded. “Yeah, why?”

“Does she work in that dingy basement area?”

“Uh, I guess? It was...basement adjacent.”

Ben furrowed his brow. “As in, similar to a basement, or beside a basement?”

“The first one, I think?”

Ben shook his head. “Okay, well anyways. Was the lady old?” 

“No, she’s probably your age.”

Ben hummed. “I guess they finally got rid of that old bat, then.” 

“What old bat?”

“A few years ago there was this old lady, I think her name was Kilpatrick, and she worked down in that basement area. She’d been working there since it was just a newspaper, rather than a, well, media conglomerate, I guess. But I think she was like a Nazi sympathizer? I only met her once, but she was honestly the worst. Hopefully her replacement is better.”

“Sure seems like she is. Jack vouched for her. They’re best friends, I think. I asked him if they were dating, and he was pretty taken aback, and vehemently denied it, so… I’m trying not to read into that.” 

Ben raised his eyebrows. “Oh? Is that so?”

“Yes. Don’t get any ideas.”

“Ideas? Me? Never.”

“That’s for damn sure,” Sammy mumbled as he pulled into their driveway. Ben made an affronted sound as he got out. 

He unlocked the door while Sammy locked the car, and he followed Ben inside. 

“Long weekend here we come! You got plans, Sammy?” Ben laughed at himself. “Why am I asking, of course you don’t. Your only plans are to lose in Mario Kart.”

“Actually, I’m meeting Jack for coffee this weekend. We’re going to brainstorm.” 

Ben’s jaw nearly dropped. “Are you kidding me? How did you swing that?!”

Sammy shrugged helplessly. “That’s why I went back inside after work when you were waiting for me. I wanted to try and get his number, see if he would be willing to get together. Strictly business, so don’t get excited.”

Ben’s enthusiasm had not dwindled. “Still! This is great news, I gotta tell mom.” 

Sammy lunged to grab the phone out of Ben’s hand. “Do NOT tell Betty about my nonexistent social/love life. Or I’ll tell her about your cavity.” 

Ben rolled his eyes. “What’s she gonna do, ground me?”

“Ben, if you have a cavity, she’s not gonna make sufganiyot when we visit for Hanukkah.” Sammy held the phone up above his head, way out of Ben’s reach. 

Ben grimaced. “Shit, you’re right. “ Then he paused. “Wait, I thought we were doing Christmas this year,” he said, confusion evident on his face. 

Sammy shook his head. “That was last year.” 

Ben started at him. “Seriously?!” He asked, incredulously. Sammy nodded. 

“She said she was considering doing Christmas again, but didn’t want to go two years in a row.”

“What? When did she tell you this?”

“Dude, like two months ago. You’d know this if you ever answered your phone when she calls.” Sammy leveled him with a look. Ben crumbled.

“I know, I know. It just makes me miss her, man.” 

“I know, Ben.” Sammy gently tossed Ben his phone and slumped over on the couch. “Would the X Files make you feel better?” 

Ben perked up. “You know it would.” 

Sammy jerked his head towards the seat beside him, and Ben practically vaulted over the back of the couch to land (almost) perfectly. He grabbed the remote and quickly put on the X Files.

“You can’t poke holes in it, though,” Ben said pointedly, as the episode opened. “It’s not meant to be analyzed so deeply. It’s meant to be cherished.”

Sammy shrugged. “I’ll do my best.”

“Sammy.”

“Fine,” Sammy replied, crossing his arms. Ben sat back with a grin. 

Sammy was… well, not nervous, exactly. He was… anticipatory? 

He sighed and changed his shirt for the fourth time. Ben raised his eyebrows from his spot on Sammy’s bed, lounging against his pillows and playing games on his phone. 

“Need some help?” Ben looked at Sammy with poorly hidden smugness. 

“Absolutely not. You think your extremely tight hoodies count as ‘good style’. We should call Queer Eye on you,” Sammy sniped. 

“Look, say what you want, but I know exactly which shirts bring out your eyes, and which ones make you look like the grumpy old man I know you are. Who do you wanna bet on? Me or you?” Ben had stood up with his hands outstretched, and Sammy undid the buttons on his shirt and handed it to Ben with a groan. Ben grinned, and threw it on the floor without a shred of remorse.

“At least hang it up!” 

Ben shrugged. “I’m not your maid. Let me see your options.” He rifled through Sammy’s closet for a few moments, then pulled out a short-sleeved green button up. “Okay, wear this. It compliments your eyes.”

Sammy took it with a degree of reluctance. “My eyes?”

Ben nodded as if Sammy was being purposefully obtuse. “Yes. It makes them look greener than they are. And Sammy,” Ben said, extremely seriously, “People LOVE green eyes.”

Sammy shook his head but put the shirt on. He stepped back for Ben’s approval. 

Ben nodded, his hand on his chin. “Okay, good. Wear jeans with a dark wash and cuff the legs. Also, come here, I’m gonna cuff your sleeves.”

Sammy complied. “Why are we cuffing both my shirt and my pants? Won’t that look weird?”

Ben laughed. “Do you want him to know you’re gay or not?”

“What? How…?”

Ben stopped and turned Sammy to face him. “Tuck your shirt in a little, only in the front.”

Sammy’s dubiousness must have shown on his face because Ben rolled his eyes. “It’s the french tuck, dude. For Tan France? Now who needs Queer Eye, heathen.”

With another lost sigh, Sammy did as Ben asked. “Alright, final opinion?” Sammy spun slowly in a circle, and Ben gave him two thumbs up. 

“You look good, but not too dressy. Gay, but only other gay people would notice. It’s perfect, it’s my best work yet. Get out of here, get some coffee and woo a hot man.” Ben waved Sammy away with an exaggerated snobby expression, and Sammy laughed as he grabbed his keys and left the house. 

The coffee shop he had arranged to meet Jack at was pretty close, and Jack had mentioned it was midway between his side of town and Sammy’s. Sammy parked and exited his car, with his laptop bag over his shoulder. 

The door dinged as he entered, and he smiled and waved to Jack, who was already seated with his laptop out, and a cup of coffee in his hand. Sammy set his things down and mumbled something about grabbing a drink, which Jack only nodded at. 

While in line, he snuck a glance at Jack. Sammy didn’t hold the same notions of romance for him and Jack, for, well, many reasons. But Jack was attractive, and easy to work with, and Sammy hoped they’d be friends, soon. 

He grabbed his drink from the counter and returned to the table, where Jack greeted him properly. 

“How’s your weekend been so far?” Jack’s expression was open and friendly, and Sammy privately noticed that Jack was the type of person who put people at ease without even meaning to. He liked that. 

Sammy shrugged. “Good. Haven’t done too much, but isn’t that kind of the point?”

Jack chuckled and held up his cup. “I’ll drink to that,” he said, and clinked his cup against Sammy’s. 

They started brainstorming shortly after, and Jack wrote their ideas down in a document which he shared with Sammy.

It pretty quickly became apparent that Jack was feeling a little overwhelmed. 

“Well, we’ve got a few weeks, right?” Sammy asked. 

Jack nodded. 

“So why don’t we get a good grasp of our game plan, potentially break it down into steps or meetings, and then move from there? Then we won’t have to try to figure it out all right now, and we can set a schedule for when we add to it, both during work and outside of it,” Sammy suggested. 

Jack scrubbed his face with his hands. “You’re so organized. Where were you when I had to do group projects in high school?” he grumbled, and Sammy smiled. 

“I was learning how to do my high school group projects when all my teammates were borderline illiterate,” He quipped, and was surprised at the short laugh Jack barked out. 

“Props, to you, then. You’re right, that is a better idea than… whatever I was about to do. This is why you’re a freelancer and I operate under a series of strict productivity rules imposed by my employer.” Jack downed the rest of his coffee. 

“Well, different strokes for different folks,” Sammy replied, and caught sight of the smile on Jack’s face before he stood to get a refill. 

“You want another one?” Jack asked, but Sammy shook his head and watched him leave with a vaguely fond smile. Which was… a bit concerning, given the short amount of time Sammy had known Jack. The only other time he’d been that invested this quickly was with Ben, who, frankly, did not give Sammy a choice. Not that he’d really want it any other way. 

The remainder of their brainstorming session was successful, and Sammy went home feeling pretty optimistic about their workload next week. And, of course, it was nice to see Jack outside of work. 

Monday came in the blink of an eye (and a few more games of Mario Kart, many of which Sammy DID win, so in your face, Ben) and Sammy smiled as he dropped his bag at his desk and walked to Jack. 

“Ready to get into it?” He asked, motion towards the conference rooms. 

Jack nodded. “I’ll meet you in there, I’m gonna grab a coffee. Do you want one?” 

Quelling his surprise, Sammy nodded. “Yes, please, um, a bit of cream, one sugar.”

Jack nodded and seemed to be repeating the order in his head. He smiled at Sammy and left to the kitchen.

Sammy got settled in the conference room and looked up when he heard Jack’s careful footsteps as he came through the door. He had a mug in each hand, and was slowly walking so as not to spill any of the coffee. He handed Sammy his, and Sammy took a sip.

“How did I do?” Jack asked, putting his mug down and removing his laptop from his bag. 

“I couldn’t have made it better myself,” Sammy replied, honestly. 

Jack beamed at that, and Sammy had to focus on returning his breathing back to normal after they forgot how to work. 

Jack didn’t waste any time getting to work, which Sammy was thankful for. 

Their work over the weekend had been very helpful, and Jack remarked a few times at how glad he was that they’d laid the groundwork already. Sammy agreed. 

Today, Sammy was tasked with requesting interviews for research. He had other research he could do, but he didn’t want to wait to conduct interviews until the deadline was approaching, he’d rather get it done first. 

So: emails.

Which Sammy hated. And was bad at writing. Fuck.

Jack looked over at Sammy’s frustrated inhale, and Sammy chastised himself mentally. He hadn’t meant to break Jack’s focus.

“You stumped?” Jack said, a hint of a smile playing on his lips.

“I have to write a professional email requesting an interview. I never know how to phrase this stuff,” Sammy confessed. 

Jack leaned in closer and took a look, and Sammy tried very hard not to notice that he smelled really good. He failed.

“Okay, so the first part is, like, weirdly formal, but then you get kind of familiar towards the bottom. But the sign off is good!” Jack added, his lips pulled back in something that was less of a smile and more of a grimace.

Sammy slumped. “I know what I want to say, and what I want to ask for, but my tone is all off in writing. When I’m writing a piece, I don’t have to worry about being appropriately respectful to my reader. I can just present the information. But in an email, I feel like I don’t know how to do that without being…” Sammy searched for a word. 

“Brusque?” Jack offered, and Sammy nodded.

“Well, you’re in luck, Stevens. I’m the foremost expert in professional emails. I will—quite graciously— write this email for you.”

Sammy could’ve melted in relief. He’d probably have written upwards of thirty drafts before finally sending one. He thanked Jack, who waved it off and brought Sammy’s computer closer to him. He thought for a moment, his brow furrowed, then began typing. After a minute or two, he was done, and showed the screen to Sammy for approval.

Sammy was floored. “How’d you do that?” He asked, with no small amount of awe in his voice. 

Jack shrugged. “You’re good at what you’re good at. For me, that’s writing professional emails in no time. Let me know if you need help doing other ones. That one is pretty generic, so it could be a template if you need it to.”

Samm thanked him again, and managed to suffer through a few more emails, which he sent with Jack’s assent. 

“Progress, baby,” Jack had said with a wink as he left to grab more coffee for them both, and Sammy swallowed thickly.

This was getting a little out of hand. Reign it in, Stevens, he thought. He tried scooting his chair further away from Jack’s, but he didn’t want it to seem purposeful. He scooted back, but overshot his mark, and ended up closer than he was before.

Which left him with no time to move back, because Jack had walked in and handed Sammy his mug with a smile, then he settled into his chair, which was just a bit too close to Sammy’s to be natural.

Sammy hoped Jack didn’t notice. If he did, he didn’t say anything. 

He also didn’t scoot his chair further away, an annoying voice in Sammy’s head told him. It sounded like Ben.

The rest of their time in the conference room was spent with Sammy’s heart rate alarmingly fast, and Jack being annoyingly natural and laidback. 

Liar, the Ben voice in his head said. You like how easy-going he is.

The voice wasn’t wrong, but it also wasn’t being helpful. Sammy hunkered down to do his work.

Jack had eventually pulled him out of his groove to tell him it was lunch time, and they should get out of the office. 

Sammy glanced at his watch and raised his eyebrows. The hours had gone by pretty quickly. 

“I usually eat lunch with Em, do you want to join us?” Jack asked as he stood and slid his laptop under his arm. 

“I’ll probably eat with Ben, but thank you. I might take you up on that some other time, if the offer still stands,” Sammy replied, hoping Jack wouldn’t read into the rejection.

Thankfully, he didn’t. “Sure,” Jack said with an easy grin, and gave Sammy a little wave as he went back to his desk.

Sammy exhaled carefully and gathered his things. He did not stare after Jack as he walked away. 

The Ben inside his mind would totally be giving him the side eye right now, if he had eyes. And also was not just a figment of Sammy’s imagination. 

Sammy hurried to grab his lunch and take the elevator up to Ben’s floor. 

Ben gave him a little wave when he saw him, and Sammy smiled. He took a seat across from where Ben sat in the break room. 

“How’s the project?” Ben asked around a mouthful of pretzels.

Sammy made an expression of vague disgust, but answered. “Good. Jack is apparently an excellent email writer.”

Ben’s eyebrows raised in surprise. “Really? You’re terrible at that.”

Sammy snorted. “I know,” he replied. 

Ben gave him a look, and Sammy rolled his eyes and shoved at him harmlessly.

“Stop, all we did was work,” Sammy insisted. 

“But you liiiiiike hiiiiiim,” Ben sang. 

Sammy chose not to dignify that with a response.

“I gotta text Troy. He’s gonna lose his mind when he heard about this,” Ben said, already pulling his phone out.

“Tell him what?”

“That you have a crush,” Ben answered, and angled his body away from Sammy, who was trying in vain to snatch the phone away without causing a scene.

He failed, and the text was sent.

“Done,” Ben told him, and ate another pretzel. 

“Did you have any vegetables at all today?” Sammy asked, eyeing the remains of Ben’s lunch, which appeared to be a Pop Tart, a packet of ramen, and his bag of pretzels.

“Nope,” Ben said, popping the P and looking entirely too satisfied.

“We’re having stir fry for dinner,” Sammy said pointedly, and Ben’s eyes widened with glee.

“Oh hell ye-“

“WITHOUT soy sauce. You’ve already had way too much sodium today,” Sammy said, with a pointed look towards the Ramen. 

Ben made a juvenile ‘aww!’ sound and frowned. “I’m glad you finally learned to cook, but also, I hate it. You used to be like me, Sammy. We used to eat trash together, and we liked it. Don’t you miss it, Sammy? Don’t you miss what we used to be?” Ben was staring at Sammy with big sincere eyes, and Sammy scoffed.

“One of us had to learn to cook, or we BOTH would have gotten scurvy. Fucking scurvy, Ben. Do you want scurvy? That’s what you’d have, without me. You’d have a stupid pirate disease from before the American Revolution.”

“All I’m saying is we didn’t use to be so different, you and I,” Ben shrugged.

“Incorrect. My definition of a healthy breakfast is overnight oats, which has plenty of fiber and protein to start your day. Your definition of a healthy breakfast is,” Sammy shuddered. “Teareal.”

Ben laughed. “Don’t say shit about teareal if you haven’t actually tried it.” 

“It’s essentially eating cereal with water, Ben, it’s disgusting. I’d rather chew, swallow, and digest a tree branch than eat teareal.”

“Bold words for someone who still relies on me to wake up in the morning.” Ben raised an eyebrow. 

Sammy just shook his head. “Stir fry for dinner, have your doctor thank me later.”

Ben just laughed and shook his head. “Oh, Sammy,” he said. “I haven’t been to the doctor in ten years.”

Sammy choked on his food.

Sammy hadn’t really planned on working on more of the project that day. He assumed that after lunch, he and Jack would go their separate ways and work on other things.

But then, after lunch, Jack had come up to his desk and asked, looking slightly sheepish, if Sammy wanted to keep working on their project. 

“I think I’m more productive with you,” Jack had confessed, smiling slightly, and oh.

Sammy’s heart jumped a little.

“Sure,” Sammy responded instantly, and rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, let's do it.”

Sammy was getting used to the easy way they worked together. It felt silly to think it, but it was almost like they fit. 

Like how Ben and Sammy fit, but… well, different, somehow. 

But Sammy wanted to be Jack’s friend. 

He had no idea how to say it, but he was going to try.

Jack kept working, oblivious to the decision Sammy had made. Sammy smiled. He turned to his computer. 

The hours passed as easy as they always seemed to do when he was around Jack. They had made a significant amount of progress by the time Ben came down to grab Sammy on his way to the parking lot.

Except Sammy was not at his desk, he was in the conference room, with Jack.

So when Ben came looking, and eventually ventured over, Sammy could only imagine what he’d seen.

Jack and Sammy, laughing together? Congratulating themselves on their productive day? Toasting their coffee mugs? 

It was enough to make Sammy feel almost ill.

“There you are Sammy, I was looking for you. Oh- you must be Jack! Hey, I’m Ben, I’m Sammy’s roommate.” Ben stick his hand out towards Jack. 

Jack stood and shook Ben’s hand. “Hey, it’s nice to meet you,” he said, and smiled. 

“How’s the project coming?” Ben asked.

“Really good, actually,” Sammy replied, and Jack nodded with a grin.

“Hey, that’s excelle—“ Ben froze. 

Sammy looked towards him, slightly worried. 

“I’m sorry, Jack? Is that a Mothman sticker on your laptop?” Ben nodded towards the decal on Jack’s computer. It was a silhouette of a cartoonish, winged man with glowing red eyes.

Sammy relaxed. This was par for the course with Ben. Truthfully, he hadn’t even noticed the sticker at all, he was too busy staring at— Um. Anyways. 

Jack nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah! Do you like cryptids?” Jack asked.

Sammy could practically feel the way Ben vibrated with excitement. He couldn’t hold that kind of energy in him for very long.

“YES! I love them! I love all sorts of paranormal, mystery type stuff. What about you?” 

“Same! Okay okay, how about this: Bigfoot, real or not real?” 

Ben scoffed. “Give me something harder next time. Obviously real,” he replied. 

Jack raised his eyebrows in delight. “Alright, what about this, then. El chupacabra.” 

Ben pursed his lips and pretended to think. “Hmmmmm real. No, fake. No… real.”

“Real?”

Ben nodded. “Definitely real.”

Jack turned to Sammy. “How about you, are you into this stuff?” 

Sammy snorted. “No, no. Not so much. I’m more of a skeptic, to be honest.”

“The Scully to my Mulder,” Ben said fondly.

“Eh, there’s multiple things wrong with that comparison, Ben.” Sammy’s arms were crossed and he leaned back in his chair, looking up at Ben. 

“What? Name one thing!”

“Well, neither of us are secretly pining away for each other, are we?” 

Ben tilted his head. “Okay, accurate. Name another thing, then.”

Sammy sighed. “Ben, in what world would you ever be a foot taller than me? Be realistic.” 

Ben gasped dramatically. “Low blow, Stevens.” 

“Well, it would have to be, you’re so close to the ground already,” Sammy replied, and Jack, who had apparently been trying very hard not to laugh, lost his composure. 

Whoops. Sammy had sort of forgotten he was there. Ben had too, judging by the sheepish look on his face. 

“You guys are hilarious,” Jack said sincerely, still snickering, and Sammy did not miss the way Ben’s chest swelled at the compliment. He almost rolled his eyes.

“We should probably head home, soon,” Sammy said, feeling more than a bit regretful, and Ben nodded. Sammy stood and gathered his things. “Thank you for your help today. I’m actually really looking forward to this project.”

“Me, too. You guys have a good one, drive safe. Bye Sammy, bye Ben.” Then Jack furrowed his brow. “Does anybody call you guys Benny and Sam on accident?”

Jack laughed at the look of revulsion on Ben’s face, which Sammy knew was mirrored in his own.

“I’ll take that as a no, then,” Jack said, and they said their goodbyes for real.

They exited the building, and heavy gray clouds rolled overhead. The air was thick with anticipation. 

As they were walking to their car, Ben turned to Sammy. “Sammy,” he said, and pulled Sammy’s attention away from the future inevitable downpour. 

“Yeah?” He replied, facing his friend. 

“Jack is SO hot. How. How is that possible.” Ben was looking at Sammy with a desperate expression, the kind that always seemed too serious to have a home on his face. 

“By all accounts, it shouldn’t be,” Sammy deadpanned, but truthfully, he wasn’t lying. Jack was unfairly good looking, and Sammy would be jealous if he wasn’t so happy to be in proximity to the man. 

“That’s illegal. He’s too beautiful.” Ben was pouting as they got in the car, just as the rain began to pour. 

“I know, buddy.” Sammy started the car with his eyes focused on the view out of the windshield, which was quickly becoming distorted through sheets and sheets of water. 

“How are you even getting any work done with that Adonis next to you?” Ben said, mostly to himself at that point. He, too was looking at the deluge. 

“I’m not gonna lie, it’s kinda hard.” Sammy pulled out of the parking lot.

“He’s ALWAYS in hand-holding distance.”

Shit. “I hadn’t thought of that, but you’re right.”

The drive home was spent wondering what it would be like if Sammy took Jack’s hand in his. 

The project, Jack had to admit, was going incredibly well.

Sammy was a delight, both as a coworker and someone he was daring to hope he could consider a friend. 

Also, as previously mentioned, he was a bit of a looker.

He was enjoying the work much more than he anticipated, more than he had since he started at this company. It was like he’d found the joy again.

Jack snorted. Too corny, probably. But still, it was true. Lily had been forced to put up with several enthusiastic phone calls about whatever progress they had made that day. She was getting very tired of it. 

Funnily enough, it wasn’t Sammy that Jack ran into the most (when they weren’t working, that is.)

It was Ben.

Suddenly, he was on the elevator Jack was waiting for, or in line at the coffee shop around the block, or making a discreet, on-the-clock phone call in the stairwell as Jack was climbing up to the roof for a mission Emily had sent him on. 

Jack truly didn’t mind. Ben was, in the plainest terms, great. 

He was someone Jack would be quite happy to spend more time with, and he hoped that could happen outside of work.

But for now, he’d be content with what he had. Which was occasional, serendipitous brushes with the guy, and friendly, comfortable small talk. 

They’d managed to get fairly familiar by the time Ben ventured down to the basement for something or other. Jack and Emily were having a long lunch, illuminated by the artificial fluorescents, surrounded by a few sparse indoor plants that Emily, somehow, managed to help flourish even in a room with no windows. 

Ben had knocked on the door, a little reluctant, judging by the way he poked his head through the door first.

“Oh, hey, Ben,” Jack said, his legs up on Emily’s desk. They had both been eating with chopsticks from the same box of takeout noodles, but Emily had disappeared in a labyrinth of shelves.

Ben had visibly relaxed at Jack’s presence, and walked in. “I was sent with a task from on high,” he said, holding up a post-it note stuck to his index finger. 

Jack didn’t bother leaning forward to read it. Emily didn’t need the help, and Jack preferred to keep sitting and eating his noodles.

“Is that a visitor I hear?” Emily called, her clear voice ringing out.

Ben jumped, and Emily appeared with a stack of files, which she dropped into Jack’s lap. A paper on the top read “Car Hauntings, you maniac” in Emily’s writing. Jack resisted the fond smirk that threatened to curl on his mouth.

“This is Ben,” Jack said, instead. “He brings a quest, or something.”

Ben once again held up the sticky note, but his mouth hung slightly open, and he stared with wide eyes at Emily. 

She was either oblivious to Ben’s gawking or did not care. Either way, she didn’t do anything but frown as she read the sticky note. 

“Oh, I know exactly where that is,” she said, a little excited, and rushed off to bring the desired information. 

“That’s Emily Potter. She’s the head… archivist? Librarian? She’s the head of this department. Except it’s not really a department? I don’t know, really. But she’s digitizing a lot of these records, especially the articles from before the merger in the early 90’s,” Jack informed, but knew immediately it was too much useless information for Ben, who was still staring slack-jawed after Emily, his index finger still raised.

Jack understood, really. Emily Potter was captivating, no matter your gender or who you were attracted to. She was someone you could tell was important. You got the impression that, if she asked, the universe would bend to her will.

At least, that’s the impression Jack got. 

And Ben, too, apparently; although in a seemingly less platonic capacity than Jack. 

“Got it!” Emily said, and practically ran back to them, hair bouncing slightly. She held the object in both hands (in this case, it was a manuscript,) and handed it to Ben, who took it wordlessly.

Mercifully, he had closed his mouth by now. Jack had been wondering about the old adage about catching flies. 

“I’m Emily,” she said immediately after Ben took the thick stack of papers, and stuck her hand out. 

Ben accepted her hand, and swallowed thickly.

For a moment, Jack was worried Ben would do something both adorable and hopelessly awkward, like kiss her hand, but he didn’t. He just shook it, and stuttered out, “I’m Ben. It’s nice to meet you.”

She beamed, and Ben was starting to look faint, so Jack decided to step in.

“Ben, I actually wanted to talk to you about—“ shit, he needed a topic Emily wouldn’t care about, umm— “drain cleaner? Sammy said you were the one to talk to about this,” Jack trailed off, and Ben looked confused, but less glossy eyed and dazed than he had when Emily had been in front of him. Jack stood and led Ben out, with a small smile to Emily.

“What do you need to know about drain cleaner? You should know, I think Sammy lied to you. I don’t know shit about drains.” Ben was looking a little worried then, so Jack explained.

“I don’t actually want to talk about drains, you were just looking awfully infatuated, and I didn’t want you to embarrass yourself.”

Ben’s eyes went wide. “I- do you think she noticed?” He asked urgently.

Jack shook his head. If she had, she’d never do anything to draw attention to it, but saying that wouldn’t make Ben feel better. “Probably not, Ben. She doesn’t put too much weight on first impressions, so you’ll be fine. Just say more and stare less next time, yeah?” 

Ben leaned against the wall as if he were dizzy. “Next time?” He asked. 

“Well yeah, I thought you liked her.”

“I-“ Ben hesitated. “I said like five words to her. I just feel…”

“Captivated?” Jack offered, and Ben nodded. “I know the feeling.”

“Oh! Are you and her…?”

Jack shook his head a bit too vigorously. “No, no we are not. She’s my best friend, but no, we have never and never will be romantically involved. So… you theoretically have a shot. If she likes you, that is. The good news is, you have time for that later.” 

Ben furrowed his brow. “Why are you helping me with this? Like… we don’t really know each other at all, and she means a lot to you, so… I don’t know, I guess I’m asking why you’re trusting me with this.” 

Jack shrugged. “All I’m doing is putting you at ease. I’m saying things that are true. You could have a shot with Emily.”

“I guess, but why me? Like, I’m just some dude who works for the same company as you,” Ben said.

“Ben, I don’t know you very well, but I think I’d like to. You and Sammy both, really. Everything I have seen of you, both of you, indicates that you’re good people. I’m a pretty good judge, Ben. Plus, you like the same paranormal shit as I do, and that gets you pretty far, in my book.” 

Ben smiled at him, then, and Jack let it infect him until he was smiling, too.

“Um. Thanks? That’s… That’s really nice. And for the record, I would like to be your friend, too. And I know Sammy would agree with me.” 

Hmm, interesting, a completely useless part of Jack’s brain comes in. He shushed it unceremoniously. 

They ended up saying a casual goodbye after that, and Jack returned to Emily, who was polishing off the noodles.

“So… Sammy’s friend Ben, hm?” Was all she said, and Jack scrunched his face up. 

“I’m not saying anything,” he replied. 

Emily looked thoughtful. “I like them,” she said. 

Jack raised an eyebrow. “Both of them?”

She nodded. “Ben seems nice,” she responded, and Jack took note of the measured, careful way she said it.

He snorted and ate a fortune cookie.

***  
Dear Jack,

So I’ve been thinking about talking to Mary and requesting help for my archive work. 

(I have also been thinking about expanding out and creating a database of information. A new library of Alexandria, if you will. Just a thought.)

I am considering Ben for my assistant. His current boss could replace him easily, and from our brief meeting, I think he would do excellently in this area. 

I wanted your input before talking to Mary. 

Yours Truly,

Emily Potter.

***

Dear Emily,

It is still baffling that you managed to befriend the CEO. And you call her Mary, instead of Mrs. Jensen, like you’re… not afraid of her. 

I think Ben would be a great assistant. I’m sure he’d love to help you out. 

My best,

Jack Wright

***

Dear Jack,

You talk about Mary like she’s some terrifying corporate machine. Truthfully, she’s delightful, and her husband and kids are so sweet; she has a lovely family.

I’m glad you think Ben would be a good fit. I’m looking forward to getting Mary’s OK. 

With utmost respect,

Emily Potter

P.S. Would you like to get sushi with me tomorrow? There’s a new place I’ve been dying to try and I don’t want to go alone.

***

Dear Emily,

SHE HAS KIDS?????

Sincerely,

Jack Wright

P.S., hell yes sushi is on!!!!

***

Jack: Why did we have that conversation via our work emails? It would’ve been way easier to text.

Emily: Gotta spice things up sometimes. What time are we getting sushi tomorrow?

Jack:... seven?

Emily: Sounds good!

Jack: Warm Regards

Emily: Best Wishes

Jack: xoxoxo 

Emily: xoxoxoxo 

(Read 5:12pm)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rejected tags for this chapter include: Gratuitous scene breaks, Sammy gets sick, Emily is very briefly drunk, Ben’s sexuality is very slightly ambiguous, and Jack is a Handsome Lad whose favorite historical figure is undoubtedly Balto.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo it’s been a while. It’s been- yeah. It’s been a while.
> 
> The Holidays were a bit of a hiccup, but I’m back, I hope you guys like it. I’m going to start chapter 4 soon but I also have to move this month, so we shall see. This chapter had a lot of unexpectedly fun parts to write, and I hope it’s just as fun to read. Enjoy!

Emily: Ben has asked me to ask you if you would like to come with us to get drinks after work.

Jack: I know it’s been a few weeks since he agreed to be your assistant but you two have become AWFULLY chummy in a very short amount of time. 

Emily: …

Emily: So, drinks?

Jack: I’m in. 

Emily: :-)

(Read 2:40)

“Hello, subterranean mutations of my friends, how goes the organization?” Jack asked as he waltzed into the pseudo-basement. “Also, what’s this sign? ‘The Adjacement’?”

Ben appeared with a bin of papers in his hands, his sleeves rolled up and his tie loosened. He looked unkempt, but it worked for him. “Hey, Jack. Oh, I came up with that. Do you like it?” Ben grinned and nodded towards the door sign. 

“It looks like you misspelled ‘adjacent’.”

Ben placed the bin by Emily’s desk, now with an extra desk chair. “No, it’s like-- okay, so this floor is like basement adjacent, so I started calling it ‘The Adjacement’.”

“Oh, so it’s like the word ‘podcast’.”

“No, I-- what?”

Emily pokes her head out from behind a shelf.“Hi Jack. We should be ready in just a few minutes. We’re wanting to get this last bin catalogued, and then we’ll be done,” Emily said, walking completely into view and grabbing a paper from the bin. She unhooked a scanner from her belt and scanned a barcode on the page. 

He hadn’t even noticed, but Ben and Emily both had scanners attached to themselves. He decided to focus on that, instead of the amount of times Emily had said “we” just then. 

“That’s some fancy tech, Potter. Who signed the check for that?” He asked with an eyebrow raised.

Emily shrugged and scanned another paper. The scanner made a small “beep”. “Oh, you know. Mary.”

“Right, right. Mrs. Jensen, your only superior, who gives you anything you ask for, including an unlimited amount of time and resources to focus on what amounts to a pet project.” Jack’s tone wasn’t harsh, and it was clear that Emily wasn’t offended, judging by the smirk that she tried to hide. 

“What can I say? She sees the value of my work. Plus I was friends with Tim in high school,” Emily replied, grabbing another stack of papers. 

“Right, Mr. Jensen. And I’m sure you’re godmother to all the little Jensen children, too, aren’t you?”

Emily shook her head. “No, just Bella.”

She laughed at his wide-eyed expression. But Jack couldn’t help it, even Ben looked surprised at that last piece of information. 

“Alright, I’m done. I promise I will answer all your Jensen questions once we have drinks in our hands,” she told Jack with a smile as she and Ben unclipped their scanners and placed them on Emily’s desk. 

“No you won’t, you like being mysterious way too much to ever give that up,” Jack responded, and Emily tilted her head. 

“Yeah, that’s true. But come on, boys, let’s go! I want snacks.”

Ben and Jack shared a fond glance as Emily grabbed her purse and led them out. 

“A pint of beer for you, a pint of beer for you, and a pint of beer for me,” Ben said, distributing their glasses and taking a seat beside Jack. They managed to score a fairly comfortable spot in a booth in the corner of the bar.

“Thanks, Benny,” Emily smiled and took a sip from hers. 

Jack glanced at ‘Benny’ who was three different shades of red. Ben chuckled nervously.

“So, I guess the cataloguing has been good then, right?” Jack asked Emily, who nodded enthusiastically.

She always got this starry-eyed look when she could talk about her work. “Yes!” She said. “It’s really good. I was right, and Ben makes the work go a lot faster. Of course, I always appreciated your help during lunches, but, well let’s be honest, that was mostly me giving you paranormal articles to read while you ate, wasn’t it?” 

Jack laughed. “Yeah, that’s true. But I don’t believe you for a second if you’re telling me that you don’t ALSO set aside spooky stories for Ben,” he told her.

Ben just drank his beer.

“I mean… yes, I do that,” Emily confessed, her cheeks flushed. 

God, Jack loved his friends.

“But enough about our incredibly important work in the Adjacement, how is your project going? I know Sammy felt really bad being sick these last few days, but he said he was going to keep working on it at home when he felt up to it.” 

“It’s slow going, without him, but nothing I can’t handle. You know, I tried to tell him to just take it easy and that we can get back into it when he’s better, but it was like trying to talk to a wall,” Jack said, shaking his head.

“Yeah, I know that feeling. He’s great at taking care of other people, but when the shoe is on the other foot? It’s like trying to push a ‘Pull’ door.” Ben shrugged. 

Jack snorted. “He kept texting me to say how sorry he was and I’m like, dude, it’s fine, please take care of yourself first.”

“Exactly! I just wanna roll him up into a blanket burrito and make him rest so he can actually get better.” He sighed into his glass.

“I’m glad Sammy has friends like you guys,” Emily chimed in. 

Jack felt his own flush growing. He hoped Ben wouldn’t notice. Thankfully, his eyes were glued to Emily, so Jack had nothing to worry about. He excused himself to get snacks. 

He ordered some nachos, and glanced back at his friends. Emily was laughing and telling a story, and Ben was looking at her like she hung the moon. He couldn’t stop his grin. Those two would be good for each other. 

His phone buzzed. 

Lily: If I have to sit through one more meeting about not offending our listeners I’m gonna sell all of my belongings and go live in the woods.

Jack: don’t listen to the h8ers Lil

Lily: If you ever say that to me again I will buy a plane ticket, fly to you, break into your apartment, and shave all of the hair on your head. INCLUDING your eyebrows. 

(Read 7:02pm)

Jack laughed as the bartender gave him his nachos, and he took them back to their table. This time, Ben was telling a story, and Emily was laughing uncontrollably. 

Ben got out and let Jack back into the booth. 

“Alright, nachos for my number one. That’s you, Emily, in case you didn’t know,” Jack said, taking a chip and popping it in his mouth.

“I thought Lily was your number one.” Emily loaded a chip with cheese and ate it.

“Who’s Lily? Is that your girlfriend?” Ben asked.

Jack couldn’t stop the uncontrollable retching that Ben’s question caused.

Emily just laughed, the traitor. “Lily is his sister, she works in DC on a journalism podcast,” she informed.

Ben made an “oh” sound. “What’s the name of the podcast?” 

“Wright On.” 

“No SHIT.” 

Jack and Emily both turned to look at Ben, eyes wide and eyebrows raised. 

He was gaping at Jack. “Your sister is Lily Wright?! THE Lily Wright?!” 

Jack just nodded dumbly.

“I love her show! Man, the way she just- she’s fearless, she really is. What was it like growing up with her?” Ben asked eagerly, more than a little star struck.

Jack couldn’t help but laugh. “It was fine? Kind of annoying, because she’d always steal my shit without asking. Also, she once dared me to climb a tree and then when I did it, she just left me stuck there. I was too scared to climb down.”

Evidently, none of this information was enough for Ben’s excitement to dwindle. 

“Are you guys close?” 

Jack nodded. “Uh, yeah, we are, actually. We don’t have the closest relationship with our parents, but we’ve always had each other. I’m really grateful for that,” he said.

Ben’s gaze was somehow even more adoring. 

“I sometimes wish I’d grown up with a sibling, but then I met Sammy, and it kind of… fulfilled that? Like he doesn’t feel like my friend and roommate, he feels like my brother. He’s part of the family, you know?” Ben said, his brow furrowed.

Jack nodded and swallowed. “Yeah,” he replied. “Yeah, I get you.” 

Jack and Emily made eye contact, and he could tell she knew what he was feeling. His little celebrity crush on Sammy had long since given way to something bigger and more nebulous, and Jack was trying very hard to stay on top of the waves.

“Here, Em, you grab shotgun. I had it on the way here, I’ll take the backseat.” Jack slid into the back of Ben’s sensible vehicle. Emily shrugged and sat in the front.

Ben hooked his phone up to the Bluetooth and passed it to Emily. “Here, you can be the DJ.” Emily accepted the phone and Jack could hear the amplified sounds of her typing through the car speakers.

“Hey, thanks for being the designated driver, Ben,” Jack said. He saw the silhouetted form of Ben shrug as the car pulled out of the parking lot.

“No problem. Do you guys want me to drive you to the work lot or should I just take you guys home? I don’t mind chauffeuring.” 

Emily hummed. “I probably shouldn’t drive. But it’s fine, I can just do a rideshare app or something. What about you, Jack?”

“Same here. We can share, maybe.” 

Ben scoffed. “Don’t be ridiculous, I’ll just take you guys home. I literally said I don’t mind like less than a minute ago.” 

“Benny-“ 

“Nope, just tell me where you live and I’ll get you there. And if you need I can drive you guys to the work lot to grab your cars in the morning.”

“Ben?” 

“What’s up, Jack?”

“You’re a good noodle.” 

Ben laughed. “Thanks, man.”

“Benny, why isn’t your Spotify working?” 

He sighed. “Oh, it does that sometimes. It’s the worst. Try closing out the app and opening it again.”

Jack saw Emily swipe the app to clear it, and then saw her drop it in her lap when it started buzzing and startled her.

“Um?” She tilted the screen towards Ben, displaying a very disgruntled looking contact photo of Sammy.

Ben pressed a button, and said “Hey, buddy, how are you feeling?” 

“Dead,” Sammy’s congested voice said, loud and clear on Ben’s car Bluetooth. “I was calling to ask if you’d pick up more medicine before you come home.” 

“Sure, but it’s gonna be a while. Oh, Sammy, say hi to everyone,” Ben replied. 

There was a pause, and for a second Jack thought the call had dropped. But then Sammy spoke.

“Benjamin Noah Arnold,” Sammy said slowly. “To whom exactly am I speaking?” His voice was flat and even, his phlegm apparently not doing much to hinder his tone. 

Jack and Emily made eye contact, and Emily mouthed a surprised ‘Noah!’ while Jack nodded vigorously. 

“Jack and Emily. Say hi, guys.”

“Hi, Sammy!” Jack and Emily chorused. 

“Hope you feel better soon,” Emily added.

“Oh. Hi. Thanks, Emily. Hi, Jack,” Sammy mumbled, and then coughed. 

Emily and Jack caught eyes again, clearly thinking the same thing. 

Sammy had said hi to Jack specifically. As in, by name.

Jack wasn’t going to read into it, except he already was, and damn, he was not as good at this whole compartmentalizing thing when he was a little inebriated, was he?

“So what kind of medicine do you need?” 

“I don’t know, morphine? Whatever they put in old timey cough syrup.”

“How about regular, modern cough syrup?”

“Ugh. Sure. Thanks Ben,” Sammy groaned before another bout of coughing. 

“Take care of yourself. I’ll be a little while, but I’ll let you know when I’m on my way.”

“Bye, Sammy,” Emily and Jack said, somehow still managing to be in unison. Maybe it worked better when they were drunk.

Ben and Sammy said goodbye, and Ben hung up.

“You know, we could still just do a ride share, I’d hate to leave Sammy waiting.”

“That’s not happening, Potter. And besides, Sammy’s a big boy, he can hang in there for a few more minutes.”

Jack frowned. “Em, we’re closer to your house, can I just crash there? I feel bad about delaying Sammy’s personal Balto over here.”

“Balto? What the fuck is Balto?” Ben scrunched his face up.

“You know, the dog? With the medicine? The vaccines? He saved all those people? And they gave him a statue?”

“What the actual hell are you talking about.” Ben hadn’t even phrase it as a question, it was a completely toneless sentence the whole way through. 

“You don’t know Balto?”

“Sure, Jack you can crash with me.” Emily gave Ben her address, and then played some music, so Jack couldn’t talk about Balto anymore. Which, rude. 

But probably for the best. 

Jack seemed to blink, and Ben was pulling into Emily’s driveway. Jack unbuckled himself sluggishly and sloughed out of the car. Emily and Ben were making arrangements to pick her and Jack’s cars up tomorrow but Jack wasn’t listening.

He was still kinda thinking about Balto.

“Alright, see you guys tomorrow,” Ben said and waved.

“Thanks for the ride, Benny!” Emily grinned.

“Hey, take care of Sammy, okay?” Jack told him, on an impulse. He probably shouldn’t have. It was probably obvious, now, that Jack liked Sammy. But, well, Ben wouldn’t screw him over, would he? Jack looked at Emily. She was waving after Ben as he pulled away, looking at his car with a soft expression.

No. Anyone who made Emily look like that would not hurt him. They were trustworthy.

“C’mon, Jack. Let’s go inside. Do you want Pringles?” She wrapped her arms around him and led them inside. 

“What kind?” 

“Uh, I think I have both.”

“Y- you have both? Both what?” 

“Both kinds of Pringles.” 

“Ma’am, What? There’s more than two kinds of Pringles.”

“Oh. I only have two of them.”

“What are the kinds that you have.” Jack’s voice was flat and monotone.

“Uh… both?” 

“Oh my god.” 

“I’m back! I bring gifts of medicine and cough drops and fresh ginger.” Ben’s voice drifted in from the entranceway, and Sammy heard the muffled sounds of Ben toeing off his shoes. He walked to where Sammy lay on the couch, looking, almost certainly, like some sort of half-dead slug person. 

Ben dug into his plastic bags and produced a bottle of cough syrup. He passed it to Sammy, and then set a box of tissues on the coffee table along with a bag of cough drops. 

“Do you want some ginger lemon tea?” Ben asked.

Sammy looked at him, more than a little dubious. Ben was not known for his cooking skills of any kind, even less so when any sort of fresh produce was involved.

“Mom made sure I knew her recipe before I moved out; she was super worried I’d get sick all the time. She wasn’t wrong, but the point is I’ve got you, man, just say the word.” 

Sammy swallowed and tried to ignore the pain it caused. “Okay,” he rasped. 

Ben left with a slight smile, and Sammy heard the telltale sounds of a tea kettle being filled and placed on the stove, and a knife chopping citrus. 

A few long minutes later, and Ben presented Sammy with a steaming mug of tea. 

“We got some ginger, lemon, honey, and I put a little bit of minced garlic in, too. So… that’s gonna taste yucky, but I believe in you. Drink up,” Ben said, and parked himself on the ground beside the couch. 

Sammy slowly shifted until he was sitting, propped up on one arm. He brought the mug to his face and sipped its

Ben was right, it was yucky. But at this point, it felt a bit like Sammy had nothing left to lose, so. He made short work of it.

“That was fast. I used to take ages to drink it. But that might be because it was too spicy. My mom added cayenne. Count yourself lucky.”

“Thanks, Ben,” Sammy said softly. He eased himself back down, and wrapped his blanket around him tighter.

“Get some sleep, Sammy. See you tomorrow.” Ben stood and walked to his room.

“G'night,” Sammy replied, and his eyes drifted shut. 

“Hey, you’re back!” Jack said with a joyful grin as Sammy walked to his desk. He dumped his bag on his desk chair and made his way over to Jack.

Sammy was struggling with how happy Jack looked to see him. 

“How are you feeling?” Jack looked Sammy up and down, clearly checking for any remaining signs of illness.

“Better. I’m a bit sniffly still, but a runny nose is the worst of it,” Sammy answered. He leaned against Jack’s desk, and Jack looked up at him from his seat.

“So, not to get right into it, or anything, but…” Jack trailed off, looking at Sammy with a cautiously hopeful expression.

Sammy stifled his grin. “I have my interview information all laid out, you don’t need to worry, I’ve got it covered. All we need to do is compile everything.”

“Awesome. Man, I’m super glad you got sick after you finished that interview because… yikes, otherwise.” 

Sammy nodded somewhat absentmindedly. 

“Oh! Before I forget, I have the research you sent me. I forwarded it to Em and Ben because it kinda seems like something they’d be into.” 

“Because they’re nerds?”

Jack cocked his head. “Well… yeah, but I wasn’t gonna say that.”

Sammy couldn’t hold in his smirk that time.

“Anyways, I have to finish this up before lunch, but after that I’m all yours if you’d like to work together on the presentation.”

“We have to present it now?”

“Well, not really, but Emily says Mrs. Jensen likes things that are in a slideshow. So I figured we should organize it that way.”

Sammy started at him. “Jack. We’re journalists.”

“This is true.”

“We write. We don’t make slideshows.”

“Well, I do, sometimes, but that’s purely recreational.”

“W- and you call Ben and Emily nerds?”

“No, that was you, remember?”

“Oh, shit you’re right.”

“Are you sure you’re well enough to be back at work?”

“I’ll be fine. If I feel bad I’ll go home.”

“Whatever you say, Stevens.”

Jack turned back to his computer, and Sammy took the hint. He made his way back to his desk, and tried not to send Jack a lovelorn sort of look as he sat down. He failed.

It had happened steadily, but Sammy still marveled at how easily Jack and Emily engrained themselves in his life. There was a time when he wouldn’t even consider making room in his heart for two random coworkers, but he’d changed. He’d grown up.

Ben was a huge part of that. He’d shown Sammy the value in opening yourself up, in having people to lean on. And how rewarding it was to be someone who other people could lean on, too.

On an impulse, he texted Ben.

Sammy: hey man, I love you.

His reply came quick.

Ben: I love you too!!! What’s this for?

Sammy: just thinking

Ben: wow, you should think more often >:-)

Sammy snorted.

Sammy: get back to work, freeloader

Ben: :0

(Read 9:14am)

Sammy pocketed his device and began working, a hint of a smile still on his face.

Jack,

I finished my portion of the project here. Organized in written form (the correct way) AND in a slideshow, to appease our mysterious boss, and also you.

Sammy Stevens

***

Dear Sammy,

If this was a weird old timey fairytale I’d promise you my firstborn as a show of my immense undying gratitude. 

Buuuut since it isn’t, wanna get drinks after work?

(THANK YOU!!!)

Jack Wright

***

Jack,

You’re on.

Sammy Stevens

Jack appeared at Sammy’s desk, and Sammy removed his headphones and met Jack’s excited gaze.

“What has four thumbs and made an absolutely killer piece of journalism?” Jack asked, unable to contain his grin.

“Um?” Sammy said.

“We do!” Jack replied, and pointed back and forth between them with his thumbs. “Okay, it only works if you stick your thumbs out, too,” he said, unimpressed.

Sammy slowly stuck his thumbs out. 

Jack grinned again, and then leaned down so his hands were flat on Sammy’s desk. “Time to celebrate, partner in crime. Get your stuff, we’re clocking out early.”

“Wha- Jack, I can't leave early, I gotta pay rent,” he protested, but could already tell from Jack’s expression it wouldn’t work.

“You’d have more hours if you didn’t come in late all the time.” 

Yikes. True, but still. Yikes.

Sammy must have looked appropriately chastised, because Jack straightened, and his smile returned.”Besides, I’m buying.”

“Oh, Jack, that’s okay, I can-“

“Whatever, Sammy, you get it the next time,” Jack said, waving him off, and oh. 

That implied that he and Jack would be going out together again in the future. Possibly alone, without Ben or Emily.

Sammy hoped Jack wouldn't notice the slight heat creeping up in his face. 

“Are Ben and Emily coming?” Sammy asked, keeping his expression neutral. His voice sounded too eager, though, but Jack didn’t seem to pick up on it.

“I didn’t ask, but I know Emily was planning on working late tonight. Knowing those two, it’s entirely possible Ben is staying late as well,” Jack answered with a knowing tone in his voice.

Sammy chuckled. “Just us then, hm?”

“Just us,” Jack replied, all easy confidence and long limbs, a slight smirk blooming on his face.

Sammy swallowed. He smiled. “Alright, let’s go.”

They took Jack’s car, and he chatted as he drove them to the pub. 

Once inside, they took a seat at the bar and ordered their drinks, and Jack continued the story he had begun.

“- and so Lily is suddenly acting very sorry and contrite, meanwhile six-year-old me is bawling my head off. So she’s trying to shush me so our mom doesn’t hear, but I don’t stop, obviously, because I’m a child who’s just been kicked in the back by my vengeful sister. Then eventually she just puts her hand over my mouth trying to get me to shut up,” Jack said, and paused to take a drink.

“What did you do?” Sammy asked, grinning.

Jack shrugged. “I did the only thing I could do in that situation. I licked her hand.” 

Sammy snorted. 

“Obviously, Lily was very grossed out, and I’m sure she was about to whack me or something, but then my mom came in with our aunt, and suddenly we were two perfect angels.”

“Did they ever find out who broke the lamp?” 

“To this day, they have no idea,” Jack responded.

“I can’t believe that worked!” Sammy was smiling widely. 

“Trust me, that was not the last of our harebrained schemes,” Jack said fondly, and took another drink. 

“Do you miss her? Lily, I mean.” Sammy asked, and Jack looked down.

“Yeah, I do.” Jack hesitated, then opened his mouth again. “...In a lot of ways, it feels like she’s the only real family I have. Like she’s the only one who is always there for me, you know?” Jack seemed solemn.

“I’m glad you guys have each other,” Sammy said softly.

Jack looked up at him, then. “Yeah, me too,” he replied with a small smile.

“You know,” Jack began with a small smile. He seemed almost nervous. “I was a huge fan of your work before I even met you,” he said. 

Sammy froze. “You- what?”

Jack nodded. “I really admired you, dude. You’re an excellent writer.”

Sammy could not process how nice this handsome man was being, so he focused on the easiest part of the sentence. 

“Admired? Past tense? I know they say never meet your heroes, but I didn’t think I was that bad,” Sammy joked, and hoped desperately he didn’t come off as lame as he felt. 

Jack laughed and shook his head. “No, you’re fine. It’s just hard to be starstruck when you’re sitting fifteen feet away from someone every day, and see them eat spaghetti at their desk. And spill all over themselves. Takes away the mystery,” Jack replied, and Sammy ducked his head to laugh. 

Fuck, Jack was making it very hard to not be completely enamoured with him 100% of the time, Sammy thought. 

Sammy was about to try to change the subject (for his own sake), when a woman came up beside Jack and smiled at him flirtatiously.

“Hey, my name’s Abby,” she said, her hand on Jack’s shoulder. She looked at him through long lashes. Her nails were painted red.

Jack looked up at her. If he was surprised, he didn’t show it. “I’m Jack, this is my friend Sammy,” Jack replied with polite distance, and shook her hand. Sammy noticed her hand didn’t return to his shoulder afterwards.

“You look like someone who could use a bit of fun, Jack,” she told him, and if Sammy wasn’t gay, her whole thing would probably be pretty appealing. “My friends and I are going out to a club tonight, if you wanna come,” she finished, and Sammy wanted to scoff when she bit her lip. 

“Oh, thanks, but I think I’m going to stay with my friend,” Jack replied, nice as ever. His body language was closed off, even though his expression was open.

Abby looked disappointed, but accepted that. ”Well, if you change your mind,” Abby said, and took out a pen, then wrote her phone number on a napkin. She winked at Jack and walked away.

Jack took a large drink, his eyes wide. 

“You know, if you want to go, I don’t mind. I can find some other way home,” Sammy told him. He really hoped Jack wouldn’t go. 

Jack shook his head emphatically. “I wouldn’t do that to you, Sammy.” 

Sammy felt warmth spread throughout his chest.

“Besides, I’m gay.”

Sammy could’ve choked on his own tongue. His mind instantly played back every interaction he’d ever had with Jack, and tried futilely to analyze them. 

“Sorry, did I make it weird? I never know when to let people think what they think and when to tell them,” Jack said, cringing slightly.

“No! Oh, not at all, sorry. I guess I was just surprised. But I shouldn’t have assumed,” Sammy hurried to reply.

So not only was Jack single, he was also gay. And he admired Sammy at the very least as a writer.

Big news.

“That’s alright, it’s not the first time it’s happened, and it certainly won’t be the last,” Jack replied good naturedly.

“Does anyone at work know?” Sammy asked, his eyebrows creased. 

Jack cocked his head. “Emily does, but besides her, nobody. Well, you, now, and I don’t mind if Ben knows, either, you can tell him if you want.”

Sammy just nodded noncommittally. 

“Privileged information, huh?” Sammy tried to joke. He swallowed thickly. 

Jack laughed. “I don’t know about that. What do you call something that isn’t a secret, but still only a few people know?”

“Mm… I think that’s still a secret,” Sammy said, smiling.

Jack grinned. “Well, speaking of privileged information,” he began. “Have you also been noticing the tension between Ben and Emily?” Jack asked conspiratorially.

Sammy’s eyes widened, and he nodded enthusiastically. “Yes! He’s never been this excited to go into work until he started working with Emily,” he said.

“And did you notice how many ‘late nights’ Emily has been voluntarily working?” Jack added.

Sammy gasped. “Wait, you don’t think they’re-“

“Hooking up? No, We would definitely know if they were. Besides, the unresolved tension is too thick for that. You could cut it with a knife, Sammy,” Jack said.

Sammy laughed. “They’d make a great couple, though.”

“They would make a beautiful couple. I hope they get together. I mean, they’re both so lovely separately, both in looks and as people, but together? Beautiful Ben and Beautiful Emily?”

“It’s heartwarming to think about,” Sammy agreed.

“If they ever get together and get married and have kids, I got dibs on godfather,” Jack said.

“Wha- hey! Ben is like my brother, what about me?”

“You can be Uncle Sammy.”

Jack laughed at Sammy’s disgruntled look.

“Fine, in this unlikely hypothetical, they can have two godfathers.”

“Well now I can’t stop thinking about the second godfather movie,” Sammy deadpanned, and for some reason Jack found this extremely funny, which was unfortunate, because he was drinking when Sammy said it.

“Sammy! You made me spit all over this nice clean bar!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, I don’t see anything.” Sammy’s face was schooled and neutral. He took a drink. 

But then Jack’s affronted look almost made Sammy spew his own mouthful of beer, and Jack’s vindicated “HA HA! Shoe is on the other foot now, STEVENS!” did not help in the slightest.

Their bartender was not very pleased.

They left about an hour later (after tipping well) and Jack dropped a now-sober Sammy at his car in their work parking lot. 

He couldn’t stop smiling the whole way home. 

“Ben, you up?” Sammy asked as he entered their home, kicking off his shoes and throwing his keys on the credenza. 

“Yup,” Ben replied distractedly, smiling at his phone.

“Texting Emily?” Sammy asked innocently. 

“Yeah...No, what?” Ben threw his phone down and looked guilty. Sammy just laughed. “How was your night? Did you seduce Jack yet?”

Sammy scoffed. “It’s very flattering that you think I’m capable of seducing anyone, least of all Jack,” he replied. 

Ben shrugged. “I don’t know Sammy, I think you got moves,” he said. 

Sammy stared at him. “You think I ‘got moves’?” he asked incredulously. 

Ben nodded.

Sammy just rolled his eyes. “...Anyways, I did find out some interesting information tonight. Unrelated to me seducing anyone. Well, maybe semi-related, but it was unintentional.” Sammy sat on the couch and put his feet up on the coffee table. 

Ben immediately sat across from him and leaned forward. “Do tell.”

“Well… he told me he was a fan of my writing before we ever met. He said some very nice things,” Sammy said evenly. 

Ben’s jaw dropped. “Oh my god, you love him.”

“I don’t love him, Ben. I have… feelings,” Sammy admitted with a great deal of reluctance. 

“Yeah, feelings of love!”

Sammy raised his eyebrow. “Ben, do you want to know what happened or not?”

Ben leaned back and motioned for him to continue. 

“Well, then a woman came by and hit on him,” Sammy began.

“Ugh,” Ben groaned, and Sammy nearly smiled. 

“Jack let her down easy, though,” Sammy continued, and ignored the sounds of Ben cheering. “I asked him why, and he said that he wasn’t going to just leave me.”

“Oh my god! He loves you!”

“And then he said ‘Besides, I’m gay’.”

Ben’s mouth fell open. His eyes were wide and shocked. “WHAT?!”

Sammy nodded and pursed his lips. 

“Oh my god! SAMMY! Why aren’t you freaking out? Wait, is it cool that you told me?” Ben asked, suddenly reluctant. 

Sammy nodded. “He said he doesn’t mind if you and Emily and I know, and I could tell you if I wanted.”

“Oh, good. But SAMMY!” Ben grinned and moved to sit beside Sammy, clutching Sammy’s arm tightly in both of his hands. “What did you say after that?”

“Then we started talking about how cute you and Emily are and how we can’t wait until you guys get married and have delightful babies.”

Ben blushed bright red. “I don’t know what you're talking about. Shut up,” he mumbled, looking down. 

Sammy laughed. “Jack called you beautiful, by the way.”

“What?!” Ben shrieked, and Sammy reflexively moved away from the source of the loud screech that just pierced his eardrums. “What EXACTLY did he say?”

“He said something about how Beautiful Ben and Beautiful Emily would make a lovely couple or something, and I agreed.”

Ben looked awestruck. “You think so?”

“That you and Emily are beautiful, or that you’d be a lovely couple? Because yes to both,” Sammy replied.

“Awe, shucks, Sammy.” Ben grinned. 

“Don’t let it get to your head,” he said. 

They sat in companionable silence for a moment, each lost in their own musings. Then Ben turned to Sammy. 

“Hey, did you ever tell Jack that you’re gay, too?”

Sammy’s eyes widened. 

Fuck. 

Sammy’s Internal List of Gay Things:  
Cuffed sleeves and pants (thanks to Ben)  
Lots and lots of iced coffee  
Very sassy  
Long hair that’s always in a bun  
Strong opinions on boy bands (also thanks to Ben)  
Wears bracelets (is that gay? Do straight men wear bracelets? Whatever, I’m counting it)  
Rainbow sticker on water bottle (that I never even use)  
Speed walks everywhere (could also be a tall thing)  
Can’t sit on chairs correctly  
Secretly listens to ABBA

Conclusion: too subtle, I could just be a quirky hipster, for all anyone else knows. 

There’s no way Jack has realized I’m gay.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Emily wants to fight Paul Hollywood, Ben makes a brief anti-capitalist joke, and Sammy and Jack are still gay and still dumb

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoo boy. Whooooooo boy. I apologize for the long wait for this one but in my defense: I was moving, and writing this at times was like pulling teeth. But mothers and fuckers of the jury, we’re here, we made it. Please enjoy xoxox gossip girl

Jack pressed the “call” button on his phone, and brought it to his ear. 

Emily’s voice came through the speaker. “Hello?”

“Hey, Em. What are you up to today?” He asked, and grabbed a mug from his kitchen cabinet, filling it with coffee. 

“Nothing much, just making some bread,” she answered, and he heard a distant thump, which he imagined to be dough slapping down on a countertop.

“Oh, damn. Can I come over?” Jack put a tablespoon of sugar and a splash of half-and-half into his mug. He tasted it, and nodded to himself. 

Of course! When should I expect you?”

Jack glanced at the clock on his range. “Half an hour, maybe less?”

“That sounds good. See you soon!” She chirped, and he smiled and said his goodbye. He finished his coffee and showered in record time, and was out the door within a quarter hour. 

He let himself in to Emily’s quaint abode, and quietly said hello to her young tabby who meowed to him as he entered. “I’m in the kitchen!” Emily called, and Jack walked deeper into her home to find her kneading dough on her kitchen island, with flour up to her forearms. Her hair was tied back, but some strands towards the front had come loose, and she blew them out of her face absentmindedly as she beat the dough into submission. She was also wearing an adorable pink apron, and Jack took a moment to be very thankful for his friend. 

“What are you just standing there for?” Emily asked, grinning. She had somehow gotten flour on her nose, and Jack discreetly secretly took his phone out and snapped a picture. She looked up before he could put his phone away, and her brow furrowed as she looked at him. 

“Did you just take a picture of me?”

Jack shrugged and smiled fondly. “Yes,” he admitted. 

Emily snorted. “Why?”

“I thought I’d brag to the guys about how I’m about to eat fresh bread with my favorite person, and they’re doing… not that,” Jack replied. 

“You keep insisting I’m your favorite, but I can’t help but wonder what Lily would think,” Emily teased, and Jack took a seat at the island. 

“Lily would get it. She’s always going to be my other favorite. I can have multiple, you know.”

“Not sure if that’s how that works, Jack,” Emily told him with a small smile.

Jack didn’t mind. He shrugged. “It is for Lily and me. We’ve been through too much together to let anything come between us,” Jack said, and paused. “We had, um… We had this really big fight, when we were both in college,” he began. 

Emily paused her kneading and looked up. 

“We both said really harsh, stupid things. Cruel things.” Jack swallowed and looked down. “Lily… She’s always been really good at hitting where it hurts. And while I’m not quite so biting, I know her better than anyone else in the world. So… I knew what to say to get to her.”

Emily watched him, her expression patient and open. 

He continued. “We, uh. We didn’t talk for the better part of a year, after that. It was probably the loneliest time of my life. Even before I came out to anyone, when I was still pretending to be straight in high school, I still had Lily, so the pretending was… well, it was bearable. I don’t like feeling dishonest, but I could always be who I was around Lily, even before I came out to her. 

“So that time… It was pretty dark, Em. For both of us. We were both being self-destructive and immature, but eventually it just got too hard to try to stay mad. I was still hurt, and so was she, but the anger was gone.” 

He chewed his lip, and continued after a moment. “And I don’t know about Lil, but after I was done being so furious, I just felt empty. So I sent her an email. And she responded. Nothing too serious, really. And after that, we kept emailing; then we started texting, and calling, and soon we met up for the holidays. And… we talked. It was long, and difficult, and we were both crying by the end. But we fixed it. 

“Since then, we’ve been rock solid. So when I say I’m not worried, I mean it. Lily and I will always be okay. We’re both very determined not to let anyone or anything get between us ever again.” Jack sighed and met Emily’s eyes. 

“Wow,” Emily said softly. “I’m really glad you guys have each other, Jack.”

He nodded and smiled. “I am too. Fuck, now I feel like I need to call her and tell her I love her,” Jack laughed. 

“Do it, so I can say hi to her.”

Jack shook his head fondly, but complied. 

Lily picked up almost instantly, like she always did. 

“Well, well, well, if it isn't my no-good lying scoundrel of a brother,” Lily greeted over the speakerphone, sounding entirely too happy to hear from him. 

Jack mock-gasped. “Is that my rotten bastard of a sister? Her voice is so grating and harsh, I thought for sure it was Baba Yaga,” he replied, grinning widely. 

Emily chuckled. “You guys are fun.” She put her now-kneaded lump of dough in a bowl and covered it with a dish towel. 

“Is that the lovely Miss Potter I hear? Jack, how could you not tell me we have guests,” Lily admonished, and Jack snorted. 

“Hi, Lily, it’s lovely to hear from you,” Emily said.

“Oh, Miss Potter,” Lily purred. “It is a delight to hear from you as well.”

Jack pretended to gag. “Anyways, Lily,” he interjected. “Sammy and I finished our project. You’d be proud.”

“Aww, I’m always proud of you, Jackie,” she cooed, and Jack rolled his eyes at his childhood nickname. As annoying as her words (and tone) were, he knew she truly meant them. 

“Aw! ‘Jackie’!” Emily echoed, and Jack mentally sighed. There was a reason he had hidden his childhood nickname from her. He sent her a warning look. 

Which she, obviously, did not heed. 

“Careful, Potter, or I might have to actually send that baking photo to ‘Benny’,” he sang, and Emily’s eyes widened. 

“Don’t you dare.”

“Don’t force my hand, Emily,” he countered. Neither of them broke eye contact.

“...May I see this ‘photo’?” Lily asked, innocence personified. 

“Sending it now,” Jack replied, and Emily squawked. 

“Guys, no! I look like a mess,” Em protested, but Lily whistled lowly through the phone. 

“Potter, you are sorely mistaken if you think you look anything less than a VISION.”

“Yes! Exactly, thank you, Lily.”

“No no, thank YOU. Let me just… save that real quick,” Lily mumbled, her voice sounding far away. 

“Okay, you Wrights are both very sweet and also very obnoxious. I’m thinking this was a bad idea,” Emily told them pointedly. 

Jack simply shrugged, and walked to her side of the kitchen. “Nah. It was another of your very brilliant ideas, actually.” Jack smiled at her and leaned down to kiss her forehead. 

Lily had to go shortly after, and Emily and Jack migrated to the living room to chat. Emily made them both tea, and Jack accepted his as he sat on her couch while she claimed the armchair. Her cat jumped up on the couch and curled up beside him. 

“Hello, Your Honor,” Jack greeted, and gave the cat a few head scratches. “I know I’ve said this before, but I absolutely love that your cat’s name is ‘The Judge’,” Jack said. 

Emily rolled her eyes. “Well, I didn’t pick it, but I’m glad it brings you such joy.”

Jack kept petting The Judge. It was hard not to relax completely when he was surrounded by such a cozy environment. The window in Emily’s living room was open, letting in a chilly breeze. Emily shivered and grabbed a throw for herself. 

“Want one?” she asked, holding up a fuzzy blanket. 

“Sure.”

Emily tossed it across the living room, and it landed partially on Jack’s lap and partially on The Judge, who meowed unhappily and jumped down. 

“Em, you drove him away!” Jack cried, but laughed at her raised eyebrow and set about spreading the blanket over himself. 

“He’s resilient, he’ll be fine.”

He leaned back into the corner of the couch, folding his blanket-covered knees up against his chest until all six feet of him was curled in a ball. He grabbed his mug and smiled happily.

Until his focus was drawn by the stock sound of a camera shutter, and Jack looked up at Emily, smiling smugly, with her phone out.

“Emily Potter!”

“Payback, babes,” she said simply. 

“If you send that, it’ll mean war, you know.” Jack looked at her evenly. 

“My house, Wright. And it’s my fresh bread we’re waiting on. Are you gonna risk that? You know how good my bread tastes. Are you prepared to forsake fresh bread, hot from the oven, slathered with melted butter… for your pride?” She stared him down. 

Jack almost hesitated. “Don’t force my hand, you won’t like what happens.”

Their unnecessarily dramatic stare down was put on hold by the dinging of both their phones. 

It was a text from Ben to their group chat. 

Ben: [sammy.jpg]

Jack and Emily looked up at each other with matching curious expressions, and opened the photo simultaneously.

It appeared to be a picture of Sammy pre-sneeze: his eyes were half-closed, his mouth opened wide and his eyebrows scrunched up. 

It was not a face Jack had ever seen Sammy make, and he could’ve hugged Ben for this delightful opportunity to tease Sammy. A glance at Emily showed she felt the same, her grin even wider than his own. 

Their phones went off again. It was from Sammy, this time. 

Sammy: [bEN.jpg]

Neither of them hesitated to open the image. 

It was a picture of Ben, obviously. It was slightly grainy, and the lighting was a little dim, but it was easy enough to see. Ben was wearing a sheet mask and a fluffy robe, with his curly hair sticking out of the top of a headband. His expression was distant, he obviously had not known he was being photographed. 

Emily snorted. “He looks so… vacant?” She said, around stifled giggles.

Jack laughed. It was an apt description. 

Their phones dinged yet again. It was from Ben. It was the same picture of Sammy, but over the top of the image was the caption “When the sneeze hits.”

Jack saved the picture. He tried to stop smiling. It didn’t go too well. 

Sammy followed Ben’s example, and sent the same picture of Ben in his mask, this time with a caption. The caption was “When you can’t think of a good caption.”

“Your boy’s sassy,” Emily remarked with a self-satisfied grin, and he glared at her. 

“He’s not my boy,” Jack mumbled, his face pink. 

She clearly was not listening. Which. Unfortunately for her, meant that Jack would have to take drastic measures.

Her phone dinged. 

Jack: [beautifulEmily.jpg]

Her eyes shot up to his. “YOU DIDN’T.”

Jack said nothing. She started hurling pillows at him in the middle of typing on her phone, and he knew that retribution would be swift. 

His phone went off, and Emily dropped her phone to the ground and started hurling more pillows at him. He absently wondered (in the midst of exclaiming and dodging the onslaught) where she was getting all these pillows from. 

Then they ran out, and she leaned over the side of her arm chair to scramble for more. Jack took that moment to check his phone. 

Emily: [Jackball.jpg]

But worse than that, both Sammy and Ben were typing. Ben sent his text first. It was a meme with two panels. In each was John Mulaney on stage, saying either “NO!” or “YEAH!”. 

The top panel (the ‘no’ panel, that is) had the text “sending ugly pictures of your friends to the group chat.”

Meanwhile, the bottom/”yes” panel had the words “Sending adorable/attractive pictures of your friends to the group chat.”

The meme was accompanied by a text from Ben. 

Ben: Jack and Emily be like^^^^

Emily stopped throwing pillows at Jack while she read the texts. 

Jack saw his opening.

“Do you think Ben thought yours was more adorable or attractive? I think he’s probably well on his way to being hopelessly in love with you, so it honestly could go either way,” Jack said, nonchalant. 

Emily looked up from her phone and hurled another pillow at him.

Jack began to make a meme of his own. With the same format Ben had used, he put “Not throwing pillows at Jack” in the ‘no’ panel, and “Assaulting Jack via barrage of an unusual amount of throw pillows” in the ‘yes’ panel. He added the caption “Emily’s internal voice”.

He then sent a picture of himself, covered in all of the pillows she had thrown at him. 

His phone dinged, and Jack saw that Sammy had texted him in their private chat.

Sammy: [Ben2ElectricBoogaloo.jpg]

Sammy’s picture was of Ben, smiling happily at his phone.

Sammy: He saved the picture of Emily like 0.2 seconds after you sent it

Sammy: to be fair, it is a very good picture, but something tells me Ben is more interested in the subject rather than in your photography skills.

Jack: Yeah I’d have to agree with you there

Jack: How much would you bet they ask me to be their wedding photographer?

Sammy: I will bet you one coffee

Jack: homemade or coffee shop?

Sammy: coffee shop, obviously, who do you think I am?

Jack grinned, and looked up from his phone. Emily was sitting cross legged on the floor. She was beaming at her phone, its glow softly illuminating her features. He took another picture. 

He opened up his private chat with Sammy.

Jack: [SMITTEN.jpg] 

Jack: now, who do we think she’s texting? Any guesses?

Sammy: my money’s on Mrs. Jensen

That startled a laugh out of Jack. He tried to school his features but failed miserably.

Jack: Oh dear, I’ve turned you into a betting man

Sammy: you’re a terrible influence, truly. I have no idea why I hang out with you 

Jack bit his lip. His fingers hovered over his keyboard. Fuck it, he thought. Life is too short not to write that risky text. 

With a sharp exhale, he pressed send.

Jack: Must be my stunning good looks

“Shit! Fuck!” He cried, and tossed his phone across the couch. Emily looked up in alarm. 

“What? What’s wrong?” She asked, her eyes wide, her phone forgotten in her lap.

“I’m the stupidest person ever and I want to go be a goat farmer and never ever see a cute man again.” Jack hung his head in his hands and groaned. 

“What?”

“I sent Sammy a risk text and it’s slowly eating me, like a big worm.” 

“Okay...What was the text?”

Jack sighed. He passed her his phone, but checked to see if Sammy had seen his text first. He had, but hadn’t yet begun typing a response.

Emily looked at his phone, her brows furrowed. “This isn’t that risky, Jack. Why are you worried?” She held the phone loosely and looked up at him. 

“Because last night I told him I was gay and he didn’t say anything about him being gay which means he’s probably straight,” Jack answered, all in one quick breath. She didn’t say anything, just looked back down and frowned. 

Jack hung his head. Then he heard Emily gasp.

“Jack, he’s typing,” Emily said urgently, and showed him his phone.

Three little dots taunted Jack. 

Then his phone vibrated in his hand, and Sammy’s response appeared.

Sammy: Must be.

Jack gaped at his phone.

“Well what the FUCK is that supposed to mean?!”

“Alright sir, bread is done. You’ve got the Great British Baking Show all queued up?” Emily asked, taking her oven mitts off. Steam rose up from the top of the very attractive loaf of bread that she had just deposited on the island. 

The...excitement of earlier had dwindled, and Emily and Jack decided to focus on something other than their respective crushes.

Not that Emily had admitted her feelings for Ben, but honestly, who did she think she was fooling?

They’d watched some TV for a little while, and then Emily had put the bread in the oven while Jack filled her on in exactly what had happened the evening before. 

Including the entire story of Jack coming out to Sammy, and Sammy not saying a damn thing about his own sexuality.

Which was fine, Jack knew. If Sammy really wasn’t straight, then he should come out on his own terms, and it was perfectly understandable for those terms to not be “in a semi-shady bar with a man you’ve known for less than three months.”

But Jack had to be honest, he just wanted to know—

Did he have a shot? 

Because if not, Jack needed to start getting over Sammy, like, yesterday. 

But if he did, well… 

Well. He couldn’t really think about that right now. 

Then he realized Emily was looking at him expectantly. 

“I’m sorry, could you say that again?”

“Did you queue up The Great British Baking Show?”

“Oh! Yeah. All ready to go,” he responded, and returned her smile. 

They sat down with slices of warm bread and began watching the show. When they were a few minutes in, Emily scoffed. “I can’t believe Paul Hollywood said that. Who does he think he is?”

Jack shrugged. “A world class baker?” He looked over at her, and smiled at her angry expression. 

“I’ll show him a world class baker,” Emily mumbled, and Jack laughed. 

The Judge made a reappearance, and hopped up on Jack’s lap again. Jack immediately reached down to scratch his head.

“Hey little boy,” Emily whispered affectionately, and reached over to let her cat, before turning her attention back to the TV. The show played on, but Jack wasn’t paying attention. 

He swallowed thickly; let out a breath. Cleared his throat. 

“Em?” 

She looked over at him.

“I-“ he sighed. “I really hope Sammy isn’t straight.” His words were soft, and he didn’t quite meet her eyes. 

Emily paused the show and turned towards him. He groaned and let his head fall onto the back of the couch. 

“I just- I like him so much, you know? I didn’t… I didn’t mean for this to happen. I was okay with being friends. I’m still okay with that, but I just— it’s getting...hard.”

“It’s a lot,” Emily said understandingly, after a moment

He nodded. “It’s- I’m scared.”

“Of Sammy?” Emily’s brow was furrowed, her voice gentle. 

He shook his head “No… I’m scared of how much I care about him. It feels so intense, and I- I don’t want to make him feel weird or awkward, even if he isn’t straight. I value him, and I value his friendship. I don’t want my feelings to jeopardize that.”

Emily reached out and squeezed his shoulder. She shifted closer to him until their thighs were touching, then she wrapped her arm around his. 

“I don’t know what the future holds,” she began. “But I know that Sammy cares about you too. I don’t think he wants to lose your friendship. But… if something does happen, and worse comes to worst? You won’t have to deal with it alone.”

He leaned his head on her shoulder. “Thank you, Emily.”

“And… if Sammy hurts you--“

“Oh my god, is this a reverse shovel talk?” Jack looked at her incredulously.

“Listen, all I’m saying is I’m sure I could get Mary to fire him, push comes to shove.”

“Emily! That is so illegal!” Jack cried, half delighted and half shocked.

“Well I wouldn’t feel good about it, but I’d do what I have to,” Emily replied shrugging. 

Jack leaned back down on her shoulder. “You’re my favorite, Emily Potter.”

Emily leaned over and kissed his hair. 

In the next few weeks, the four of them spent a lot of time together, both inside and outside of work hours. It became a part of their routine, and Jack could not have been happier to have more work friends. Well, more friends in general, truthfully. He was proud to say that his social circle now expanded past Emily and his sister and occasionally a friendly acquaintance from his rugby team. 

And it wasn’t just Sammy and Ben, either. Jack had accidentally made friends with Troy, another writer on their floor. He also introduced them to Ron, a lifestyle journalist, Doyle, and Archie. 

Jack liked Troy and Ron immediately. Doyle was… alright. Semi-entertaining. Jack wasn’t entirely sure what Doyle did at their company, but he saw him sporadically.

Archie kept hitting on Jack, but it was harmless and fun, so Jack didn’t mind him. He also showed Jack all his cute dog pictures, which was another plus. 

Ben, meanwhile, had managed to start a feud with an employee he rarely even interacted with. When Jack asked him about it, Ben had immediately gotten surly, and started mumbling how much he hated a person named Pete. Jack vaguely knew who he was talking about. 

The leaves on the trees reddened; Thanksgiving came and went. Sammy and Ben invited Jack and Emily to their house for a non-traditional Thanksgiving. Instead of turkey, Sammy made breakfast for dinner, and they played charades and card games. 

The temperature continued to drop steadily, and Jack had to watch Sammy come into work all bundled up, over and over, looking way more adorable than a grown man should look. It was, frankly, rude and inconsiderate. He really should say something to him.

“You’re a weenie with the cold, Sammy,” Jack said, his face blank as Sammy peeled off several layers. “It’s 55 degrees out. This is T-shirt weather.”

Sammy scoffed. “I’m not a weenie, I’m from Florida. And just because you’re a native northerner doesn’t mean I’m weak. I guarantee you wouldn’t last a minute in 80 degree weather at 100% humidity.”

“Ew, what the fuck are you trying to do, kill me? Get out of here, swamp creature. Go back from whence you came,” Jack tried to scowl, but he started laughing, so the effect was somewhat dampened. 

Sammy just laughed and shook his head. “Hey do you want to eat lunch in the Adjacement today? I know Emily’s done scanning in that anthology, right? I think she’ll have time to hang out. And space on her desk to eat,” he said with a thoughtful frown. 

“Sure. Meet you there?”

Sammy nodded, and finished removing his extensive outerwear. Jack returned to his desk with a badly hidden smile. 

When lunch time came, Jack left before Sammy, and made faces at him as he walked past. 

“You’re a duty-shirker,” Sammy stage whispered, and Jack put his finger to his lips and pretended to shush him. 

Jack was grinning widely when Sammy finally did appear in the doorway of the basement, making unimpressed eye contact with Jack, who simply leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on Emily’s desk. That is, until she reappeared from behind the stacks and shot him a “what the fuck do you think you’re doing” look. 

Then he put his feet on the ground, where they belong. 

Sammy entered, and removed a pile of books that was on a stool nearby. He placed the books gently on the ground and moved the stool beside Jack, who sat in Emily’s desk chair. 

“I put those books beside the plant, is that alright, Em?” Sammy asked as he opened his tupperware.

She glanced where he indicated, and nodded. With a contented sigh, she plopped down in the empty chair beside Ben and grabbed a chip from Jack’s open bag. At his scandalized cry, she just smiled sweetly.

“What’s that?” Jack asked, looking at the food in Sammy and Ben’s containers.

“It’s chicken stroganoff,” Sammy said, at the same time that Ben shrugged.

“It smells great,” Jack replied honestly.

Sammy smiled and thanked him. 

“You made it, Sammy?” Emily asked, biting into her wrap. 

Sammy nodded. “If I didn’t make Ben’s lunches, he wouldn’t eat,” He snorted. 

“I know, you’d make such a good mom if only you’d cut the crusts off my sandwiches,” Ben griped, and Sammy reached into Jack’s bag of chips to throw one at him.

“Okay, I don’t know why this needs saying, but these are Jack’s chips, not the community chips.”

“Tax the rich,” Ben said, and grabbed a handful of chips, then stuffed them in his face. 

Sammy and Emily both laughed, and Jack took a page from Sammy’s book and threw a chip at Ben.

Which he caught. 

With his mouth. 

Even Ben was surprised. “Holy shit, do that again!”

And so the remainder of lunch was spent throwing chips into each other’s mouths. Once Sammy and Jack had packed up their leftovers, Ben pulled Jack aside. 

“Hey, do you want to come over this Saturday and watch supernatural documentaries?” he asked, and Jack nodded enthusiastically. 

“Absolutely! How have we known each other for months and never done this?” 

“Dude, I have no idea, but it’s about time.” Ben turned to Sammy. “Are you going to be at home on Saturday?”

“What time?”

Ben shrugged and looked at Jack. “11 am?” He asked. 

“No, I’m getting my hair cut.”

Ben threw his arms up with a triumphant shout, while Jack tried very hard to keep a neutral face and not do something stupid, like beg Sammy not to cut his hair.

“Sorry to burst your bubble, but it’s just a trim,” Sammy replied, and raised his eyebrow. 

Jack let out a quiet sigh of relief that Ben definitely noticed. Oops. 

“What about after?” Ben asked. 

“Getting my oil changed, and then doing my taxes.”

“Taxes? It’s November, Sammy.” Ben furrowed his brow. 

“I know, that was a lie. I just don’t really wanna be around both of you when you’re nerding out about cryptids and aliens.” Sammy smiled sweetly.

“You’re gonna regret making fun of me, you know,” Ben threatened. 

“What are you going to do, kick my shins?” Sammy laughed, and then Ben ran towards him and tried to kick him in the shins. “Ah! Oh my god, you’re like a rat!”

Emily and Jack laughed at the spectacle as Ben chased Sammy around the deceptively large space. “What about you, Emily? Interested in joining?” he asked. 

She shook her head. “I think I’m going to have a me day,” she said, and Jack smiled and nodded.

“Love that for you,” He replied. 

“Thanks,” Emily said, as Ben continued threatening Sammy, who continued to yelp and hobble away. 

Jack raised his hand to knock, but the door opened before he could. Behind it was a grinning Ben, who welcomed him in immediately. 

“How’s it going?” Jack asked, and Ben shrugged. 

“Pretty good, can’t complain. Want something to drink?”

“Sure,” Jack said, taking off his jacket. “Do you have four loko?” He asked. Jack chuckled at Ben’s shocked, perturbed expression. “I’m just joking, Ben, water is fine.”

Ben chuckled (partially in relief, Jack thought) and grabbed a cup for Jack. “You had me going for a second. I didn’t peg you for a frat bro at 30,” Ben said as he filled up the cup. 

“Definitely not,” he replied, and took the offered drink. 

“Unlike Sammy,” Ben remarked lightly, and Jack choked on his water.

“Sammy was in a frat?!”

Ben grinned widely and shook his head. “I’m shitting you, dude.”

”Wow, I should not have fallen for that,” Jack said with an easy smile and a shake of his head.

Ben ushered them into the living room, and Jack sat while Ben grabbed the remote. “What’s your poison, mothman or bigfoot? Oh, or aliens.”

“Mothman,” Jack replied decisively. Ben turned back at him with a fond smile. 

“A man after my own heart,” he said, and put the mothman documentary on. 

They finished it an hour later, and spent another hour talking about it. 

“Okayokayokayokay, how about this: Have you ever had a paranormal experience?” Ben asked excitedly.

Jack chuckled. “Yes.”

“...Are you going to tell me about it?”

“Also yes.” Jack took a breath, and began his tale. “So I was like, eight, right? And my parents were in the backyard, talking to my sister about something or other. She was probably in trouble. But I was alone in the house. And I remember just coloring on the kitchen table, and I looked up and this kind of pale, see-through woman was in the kitchen, humming and doing the motions of washing dishes.”

Ben’s eyebrow was raised and his mouth was slightly open. He motioned for Jack to continue. 

“Well I told my parents, who did not care. But I also told Lily, who asked our parents how old the house was, and if anyone had ever died in it. And it turns out, our house was built in the early fifties, and a woman moved in with her sister in 1955. She, unfortunately, slipped and fell, and hurt her head pretty badly. She ended up dying in the hospital. But when the sister sold the house, she told the person who bought it that she would see her dead sister, sometimes.

“And ever since then, I’ve just been interested in this kind of thing. Lily actually bought me my first paranormal book for my birthday when I was ten. She hates when I talk about it, now, she totally does not buy in to this kind of thing at all. But she supported me when I was younger, and that meant a lot to me,” Jack finished. 

Ben was grinning at him “That’s awesome, man.”

“What about you? Have you ever had any encounters?”

Ben’s grin somehow grew even wider, and he sat up straighter as he prepared to tell his story. “Oh man, wait until you hear this.”

With a flourish, he began. “I am from a lovely little town in the mountains called King Falls.” He seemed to be waiting for Jack’s reaction, so he just nodded.

“I take it you’re not familiar?”

Jack shook his head. “No, should I be?”

“Well, it’s a hot spot for all things paranormal, so that one’s up to you.” Ben laughed at Jack’s skeptical look. “I grew up there, and I saw some pretty wild things.”

“...for example…?” Jack waved his hand to get Ben to keep talking. “Don’t play coy, it doesn’t suit you.”

Ben laughed at him. “Alright, fine. Well, there’s lots of apparitions. The library is haunted as fuck. By former president Abraham Lincoln, actually. Well, and John Wilkes Booth.”

“You’re lying.”

“Swear on Sammy’s overnight oats.”

“Holy shit.”

Ben grinned at Jack’s wide-eyed expression. “There’s an asshole millionaire named Beauregard who I’m fairly certain is a vampire. At the very least he’s immortal.”

Jack smirked. “You got proof?”

Ben nodded smugly. “When Sammy and I go home for Hanukkah, I’ll send you proof. There’s old photographs and recordings of his ‘ancestors’ but they look and sound just like him. No, don’t look at me like that. I mean JUST like him. Look, just— you’ll see. Just trust me.”

Jack smiled. “Alright Ben, I’ll trust you. What else?”

“We have a Bigfoot creature; his name is Big John. Some people have tried hunting him, which has never once gone well. Also werewolves, we've got a few of those. Lovely people, on the whole. A bit creepy. We also have a racist witch, she super sucks. And a personal favorite of mine, triangular UFOs that emit this bright, rainbow light.” He finished and sat back, a self-satisfied expression on his face. 

Jack looked at Ben seriously. “Ben… please take me to King Falls.” 

Ben grinned at him and nodded enthusiastically. “Oh, dude I’d love to. Both you and Emily. We should take a trip there sometime, all four of us. Oh, I could show you Kingsie. She’s the lake monster, she lives in Lake Hatchenhaw. Actually, Ron Begley? He’s from King Falls, too, and his family owns a bait shop by the lake. He’s seen Kingsie more than anyone, I’m sure.”

“This place cannot be real, Ben.” Jack shook his head in stunned disbelief, a sense of wonder in his voice. 

Ben smirked. “Oh, I assure you, it is.”

“Well, damn. I guess you’ve got me beat for close encounters, then.”

Ben laughed, and they heard the front door open. “How was taxes?” Ben called, and they heard a distant “great!”

Sammy appeared then, his hair in a bun on the top of his head and a reusable bag of groceries in his hand. “I brought dinner,” he said, and held up the bag. 

Ben blew him a dramatic kiss, which Sammy waved away immediately.

“Let’s see your hair, old man.” Ben stood and tried (in vain) to reach the hair tie at the top of Sammy’s head, but Sammy swatted him away before he could. He removed it himself, and his hair fell down in slight waves. 

It looked soft. Jack thought it was probably soft. And possibly smelled good. And oh my god, Jack, get ahold of yourself, you gay disaster. 

“Hm, it looks soft.” For a panic-filled moment Jack thought he’d spoken his thoughts out loud, but then he saw Ben reaching upwards. “I guess that’s what happens when you actually wash it,” Ben remarked, then ran his hands through it. Or, he tried, anyways. It didn’t quite work until Sammy took pity on his short friend and leaned down a little bit. 

“Are you done groping my hair?” Sammy asked in faux annoyance. 

“Sammy, this is my only chance. At every other time it’s way too greasy to touch, because you never wash it, because you’re a garbage dumpster man.”

“I wash it,” Sammy grumbled, putting his hair back in a bun. His face was a little red. “Anyways, how was the paranormal stuff?”

Ben immediately launched into a recap, and Sammy and Jack made fond eye contact. 

“And what was that thing they said, Jack? About alternate realities or something?” Ben asked, his brow furrowed as he turned around to look at Jack. 

“Oh, right!” Jack picked up the thread, and he was a few sentences into his recap before he noticed Sammy looking between him and Ben with a slight smile. 

Ben noticed it, too. “What? What’s that look for?”

Sammy shrugged. “You guys are like twins, that’s all.” 

Ben and Jack glanced at each other, then themselves. Jack, who was tall, and Filipino, with thick black hair, versus Ben, was short and Jewish with curly brown hair.

“I don’t see the resemblance here, Sammy,” Jack said after a moment. 

“No, no, it’s not that you look alike, it’s that you’re so similar. Even beyond your interest in the nerd stuff, it’s like there’s two of the same person split up into different bodies,” he explained.

Which, Jack did have to admit, made a certain sense. Ben and Jack were alike in a lot of ways, their shared interests being the least of them. 

Sammy walked to the kitchen. “I have veggies to roast and a rotisserie chicken. Also, Ben, before you ask, yes, I did bring you the fancy bread.”

Ben let out a quiet but triumphant “yes!” and followed Sammy into the kitchen. 

“You’re staying for dinner, right, Jack?” Ben asked, and both him and Sammy looked at him expectantly. 

Jack nodded, and smiled. 

Ben grinned, looking relieved, and Sammy let out a small smile as he gathered his cooking supplies. 

“Is there anything I can help with?” Jack asked. 

Sammy nodded at him. “You wanna cut zucchini?” He handed Jack a cutting board and knife, then brandished a zucchini. 

Jack took the offered objects and got to chopping.

“Ben, stop eating chicken skin, you look like a caveman.” Sammy short Ben a withering look. 

Ben grabbed another chunk of skin with his bare hands and stuffed it in his mouth, making direct eye contact with Sammy the entire time. 

Jack had to hold back his laughter. 

“Get out of my kitchen. You’re a disaster of a person. You’re like a human raccoon.”

Ben gaped. “How could you?! You know how much I hate garbage bears!”

Sammy looked at Jack with a bone weary expression. 

“You hate raccoons? Why?” Jack’s brow was furrowed. 

“Oh great, here we go!” Sammy threw his hands up and walked out of the kitchen. 

Ben straightened and took a deep breath. “Garbage bears are disgusting and frightening for a number of reasons, but in order to maintain my credibility with you, I will keep my opinions succinct. They are disgusting, because they dig through trash. Trash is yucky. Therefore, using the transitive property…” Ben looked at Jack expectantly.

“Raccoons are… also yucky?” He supplied with a shrug.

“Correct. Secondly, they have human hands! How weird is that? And they aren’t afraid of people at all! You can’t scare them away!”

Ben kept on with his tirade about the horrors of raccoons and Sammy returned, shooting Jack a secret look. 

Jack loved those looks. 

They resumed their preparations. Sammy took the chopped veggies from Jack and spread them on a baking sheet. At his request, Jack passed him salt and oil and Parmesan, and Sammy roasted the veggies. 

Then they had to kick Ben out of the kitchen because he kept eating the bread he was supposed to be slicing.

Dinner was a calm affair. Well, calm except for Ben’s occasional outbursts, but thoroughly enjoyable even so. 

Jack left after dinner, after hugging Ben and sharing another mind-bending and meaningful look with Sammy. 

Jack was more confused than ever. 

“To clarify, this is not the coffee you may or may not owe me from our Bemily bet, right?” 

Sammy looked up at him, his brow furrowed. Then he nodded. “Yes. Also: Bemily?”

Jack grinned. “Do you like it?” Jack asked, sipping his drink.

Sammy nodded, his eyebrows raised. “It’s good. Catchy.”

Jack smiled at him and ignored the butterflies in his stomach. 

“So Jack,” Sammy began, and sat back  
in his chair. 

“Yeah?”

“You got any holiday plans?” Sammy looked at him with an open expression.

The coffee shop they were in was the same one they always went to together. Emily and Ben never came to this one, they didn’t like the atmosphere, but Jack loved it, and luckily, so did Sammy.

It became their coffee shop, with all of its industrial style lighting and stained wooden tables. And now, gazing at Sammy over those same tables, Jack felt a keen sense of gratitude that he got to share this hipster paradise with Sammy alone.

“I’m visiting my sister in DC,” Jack replied. “It’s been a year or so since I’ve seen her, and she wants to introduce me to this park ranger she’s just started going out with. It’ll be good, I miss her a lot.” Jack smiled at Sammy. 

“That sounds nice; I hope you have a good time. Are you anxious to meet Lily’s beau?” 

Jack shook his head decisively. “Definitely not. I don’t have anything to worry about, it’s little miss Southern Ranger who should be afraid. And by that I mean she shouldn’t be afraid, because she makes Lily happy and from what I hear she’s like sunshine personified. But you know, she’s still the one meeting the family.”

Sammy snickered. “Yeah, I think I get the picture,” he replied, half-smiling. 

Jack fought his blush. “What about you and Ben? You’re both staying in King Falls, right, with his mom?”

“Yup, we’re doing Hanukkah with Betty, reconnecting with old friends, the usual home-town stuff.” 

“Even though you didn’t grow up there?” Jack asked, curious. 

Sammy seemed mildly surprised that Jack remembered that. “Yeah, honestly. No place really felt like home until King Falls, but that had more to do with the people than the town itself. It’s different for Ben, he has the memories of a mostly-happy childhood in King Falls. But for me, King Falls is the place where I found a family.”

Jack wanted to cry. He wouldn’t, but he wanted to. 

“Don’t look at me like that.”

“It’s sweet! I love that you found a home there, Sammy,” Jack said earnestly. 

Sammy chuckled and looked down. “Thanks,” he responded quietly. 

And fuck, if Jack didn’t feel like every one-on-one interaction between himself and Sammy gave him more and more to hope for, more to analyze and agonize over. It was endless and heartbreaking, but the tiny, blindly hopeful piece of Jack’s heart kept beating wildly for him, and Jack kept looking at him with what was surely such obvious adoration, and Sammy—

Sammy drank his coffee, and looked up at Jack through the strands of his hair that had come loose from his bun, and he smiled slightly.

Fuck. Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck. 

Oh shit, Jack hadn’t spoken in way too long. The silence had stretched into awkward territory, and Jack needed to say something immediately. 

“You know how Lily is a journalist?” 

Sammy nodded. “A phenomenal one, so I hear,” he added.

Jack smiled briefly. “Yes, precisely. Well, I made her read some of your work when I found out you were being contracted, and I hate to tell you, but uh… she hated it.” Jack made an ‘oops, what can ya do?’ sort of face, and Sammy burst out laughing. 

He tucked a hair behind his ear (HOT! THAT’S HOT!) and shrugged. “What does she know, anyways, she’s a podcaster.” 

And then it was Jack’s turn to laugh. “You know,” he began. “I think if I were to move to any audio medium, it would have to be—“

“Radio?” Sammy interrupted eagerly. 

Jack looked at him, surprised, and nodded. 

“Yeah,” Sammy said, smiling. “Me too.”

“What would you do? In radio, I mean?” Jack leaned forward.

Sammy pursed his lips. “I’d be a...host? No, radio personality, that’s what they’re called. What about you, any interest in being on-air talent?”

Jack shook his head emphatically. “No, strictly behind-the-scenes, for me,” he replied. “I’ve always been impressed with radio producers, I like how they orchestrate nearly everything.” 

“Well, between the two of us I’m sure we’d have a hit show on our hands.” 

Jack snorted. “Oh yes, you, me, and our complete lack of any radio experience.” 

“Is there any other way to do it?” Sammy joked, and Jack laughed.

They left the coffee shop in favor of walking around, after that. Again, Jack marveled at how easy it was to talk to Sammy. Truthfully, he found it easy to talk to most people, but Sammy was different. Even after spending countless work days and weekends and evenings together, Sammy kept surprising Jack, just by being himself.

And Jack loved it. 

They spent the entire day together, talking and laughing. By the time the sun had set, they were quite hungry, so Sammy suggested stopping somewhere.

They found a tiny pizza parlor and ordered, bickering in the meantime about pineapples on pizza.

“I like the flavor!” Sammy defended.

Then you’re an absolute madman! You’re a maniac, Stevens! I can’t believe you’re allowed to walk the streets freely. It’s a FRUIT.”

“So are tomatoes.”

“Sammy, I swear to FUCK—“

“Order number 9!” 

Sammy and Jack made eye contact, and then Sammy grinned, quick and evil, and said “Nose goes!” then hurriedly put his index finger to the tip of his nose.

“Nose go- oh, fuck you, for real,” Jack said with a sigh, and stood to retrieve their food. 

When he returned to the table, Sammy was smiling at him sweetly. “You know, traditionally Nose Goes is played in groups of more than two. So, by the official rules, that nose goes was illegitimate, illegal, and in poor taste,” Jack deadpanned, holding the pizza box.

“You’re a sore loser, Jack. I’m honestly surprised it even worked.”

“God, Lily would do the same shit to me growing up. It drove me nuts. You have big older sibling energy for someone who’s an only child,” Jack told him. 

“It’s Ben’s fault, I was forced to fill a role,” Sammy said, standing up.

“‘Forced to fill a role’ he says, as if you weren’t willing and ready to be an older brother the MOMENT you met Ben.” Jack shot Sammy a look, and Sammy chuckled as he held the door open for Jack. 

“Alright, you have a point.”

They walked for a few minutes in comfortable silence, then Sammy turned to Jack. “Hey, where are we going?”

Jack furrowed his brow. “Why are you asking me? I was following you.”

“What? I was following you!”

“Well. Now that we’ve been walking randomly for several minutes, why not just eat here?”

“On the sidewalk?”

“Yeah!” Jack plopped down on the ground and balanced the pizza box on his knees. 

“It’s dirty down there.” 

“It’s the city, it’s dirty everywhere.”

Sammy still didn’t look sure, so Jack looked up at him with a serious expression. 

“Sammy Stevens, there comes a time in a person's life when they need to decide. This is your time. So answer me carefully: Are you a man? Or are you yogurt?”

Sammy blinked. 

He pursed his lips. 

“Am I what.” 

Jack groaned exasperatedly. 

“Can you just stop being a coward and sit on the yucky ground, you weenie?”

Sammy looked extremely confused, but he complied.

Jack opened the pizza box and moved it towards Sammy, who smiled and took a slice. Jack took one for himself.

“Damn, I should’ve asked for ranch,” Jack said around a mouthful of pizza.

“Ew, what?”

“You don’t dip your pizza in ranch? It’s good!”

“So are pineapples on pizza!”

Jack made a disgusted face, and Sammy tried to laugh, but he had food in his mouth, so he ended up almost choking instead.

Which, in turn, made Jack laugh.

They both regained their composure, and chatted while they ate. The conversation faded again, and the night turned colder, leaving the duo shivering in their light jackets. They scooter closer together, just enough to bump knees. 

“You know,” Sammy said, breaking the silence. “—And I don’t know why I’m telling you this, but fuck it, we’re in it now— I have always been… a bit melancholy. Prone to… sadness? The worst kind of introspection? Both of those, I guess.”

Jack turned towards him, listening intently. 

“So I’d have this habit, you know. I’d hide it, make myself look better than I felt, it was. Well, I still do, sometimes.”

“Why do you feel you had to hide it?” Jack asked. 

Sammy hesitated. “I guess I feel like I’m not… like I’m not good enough to be— seen, maybe? Known? Like I’m not presentable, or ‘fit for consumption’. Does that make sense?”

Jack nodded. 

“I just- I thought I was always going to be a little bit lonely. I don’t know how to open up, I never learned. My… parents, the very people who raised me… I could never be myself around them. I always had to hide. And it killed me, a little. It was so… painful.” Sammy was staring straight ahead, wide-eyed. 

“So that became a habit. It was how I coped. I hid all the parts of myself that people wouldn’t like, I covered it up with humor or friendliness. But you can’t hide a crucial part of yourself for years without it taking a toll.

“When I met Ben, it challenged everything. My entire worldview, everything I thought I knew about myself and my relationships with other people— out the window. Ben and Betty, both of them, helped me see that I could— I could be real, and genuine. I could stop hiding myself so much, and nothing bad would happen.”

Sammy scrubbed his face with his hands. “Change wasn’t immediate, of course. I went to therapy, which was fucking hard, but… it helped. Having Ben helped. I feel like… like I’m the most me I’ve ever been, you know? I still find myself hiding sometimes, like… muscle memory, or something. 

“I still feel disconnected sometimes, too, but not quite so bad. Mostly around people I don’t know. But it’s funny, Jack. Even from the very beginning, the very first time I met you, I never wanted to hide from you. Like you were so clearly… safe.” 

Jack felt like the floor was dropping out from underneath him. 

“And that means a lot to me, Jack. It really does. So… thank you.”

Jack shook his head. “You don’t need to thank me, Sammy. I feel very honored that you’ve trusted me with this,” Jack told him, and they both had tears in the eyes.

“I’m really glad we’re f-friends,” Sammy said quietly, and Jack knew the sentiment was genuine, but he suspected they both knew that the word fell flat. 

It didn’t quite encapsulate what Jack and Sammy were, anymore. 

Jack looked away.

“I, uh. I think I know what you mean, about being a little bit lonely all the time. I… was lonely a lot, when I was younger. For most of my childhood, and then during high school, when I was in the closet, it got worse. 

“I guess I always felt like people had this version of me in their heads of charming, Perfect Jack, and I have to be him, to meet their expectations, but it’s exhausting. It’s too much, you know?”

Sammy nodded. “Yeah.”

“It’s different, with Lily. Even though she was the ‘troublemaker’ and I was the ‘perfect angel’, she never held it against me, what other people thought. She just shared her stuff and her plans with me, so making trouble was something we would do together. Even though she was the only one who got caught, most of the time.

“It’s different with Emily, too. She’s so genuine it’s hard to have a mask on around her. She makes it easy, doesn’t she?”

“She does, you’re right.”

“And of course, you and Ben. It was just like you said, right from the start.”

Sammy smiled at him, and Jack, lighter from his confession and the way Sammy looked, could’ve blown away right then and there. 

The evening caught up to them, like it was always going to. They decided to walk back to their cars, still in the coffee shop parking lot (mercifully, without tickets on the windshields). 

Sammy stood facing Jack, leaning against his car. He looked at Jack like he was trying to figure something out, worrying it over in his mind. He seemed to let it go, if only briefly, to say goodbye to Jack. The furrow in his eyebrow smoothed out, and he stepped forward with his arms open. Jack returned the hug immediately, and closed his eyes, taking as much comfort as possible in the brief moments before Sammy left.

They parted, and Jack missed him instantly. 

“Bye,” Sammy said, his voice rough and his eyes filled with some emotion Jack couldn’t name. 

“Bye,” Jack replied, and Sammy got in his car and left.

Oh. 

Oh, shit. Wow.

Jack pulled his phone out and shivered against the brisk night. He pulled up Lily’s contact, pressed ‘Dial’. 

“Jack, do you have any idea what time it is in DC right now?”

“I think I’m in love with a straight guy and I don’t know what to do.” 

“Oh, fuck.”

“Ben? Are you still awake?” Sammy knocked on Ben’s door, and at his mumbled ‘yes’, he entered. 

“Can I talk?”

Ben yawned, but nodded.

“So. As you know, I spent the day with Jack,” Sammy started, and Ben perked up, interest clear on his face. 

“And it was— well, awesome, I love hanging out with Jack. But the entire time I, kept thinking I was going to tell him, that I’d finally let him know ‘Hey, by the way, I’m also gay, isn’t that funny? Now what?’ And then I didn’t! I didn’t say any of that! I had ample opportunity. I mean, we even had a deep conversation about our insecurities and loneliness, which was surprisingly good, but I still didn’t say it!”

“But then, the whole day… I kept getting this feeling, right? Like it wasn’t just me, Ben. Like he felt it too. And I wanted to tell him. I’ve wanted to tell him for weeks. I just… I don’t know how.” 

“You’ve got time, Sammy.”

“Do I? Nothing is guaranteed. A thousand things could happen before I see him again that could change the course of our lives forever.”

Ben was silent for a moment, thinking. Then he opened his mouth

“Yes, that’s true. But you’re just using that to beat yourself up. It’s just Jack, Sammy. Arguably the nicest man we know. You don’t have to be scared with Jack. He’s safe, isn't he?”

And then Sammy couldn’t stop the tears from falling, and he wasn’t even sad, he just couldn’t hold it all. So Ben pulled him down to lay beside him, and they held it together. 

“It’s okay, Sammy. It’s alright. It’s okay to not have the words yet.”

Sammy nodded through his tears, and Ben leaned his head towards Sammy’s in the silent solidarity Sammy had come to depend on.

When Sammy was almost asleep, he reached out and squeezed Ben’s shoulder, then muttered a tired “love you, Ben.”

Ben smiled without opening his eyes. “Love you, too, Sammy,” he said quietly, and they drifted off to sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More gay disasters, Lily Wright gets the happiness she deserves, and Emily is (almost!!) arrested for horny crimes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay this took a million years. In my defense: both my computer and my phone decided to be super slow and did not want me to write things. 
> 
> Parts of this I wasn’t too sure about but I think i like the end result :)
> 
> Additionally, I made myself laugh with several parts of this chapter, so hopefully you enjoy it as well :)
> 
> Also, my apologies for any mistakes, as I said, I did edit this on an incredibly slow device so if I missed anything that’s my B

Sammy was fucking grateful for Emily Potter.

For multiple reasons, really, but the latest of which happened to be that she had given him and Ben homemade cookies for their flight to King Falls. 

And they were, of course, delicious. 

Ben and Sammy had split the ziploc bag of goodies evenly when they sat in the terminal, each divvying up his half into whatever leftover snack bags they hadn’t thrown out yet. 

Ben, naturally, started cramming cookies into his mouth before the previous plane had even deboarded, until Sammy gently reminded him that it was a four hour flight, and Sammy would not share his cookies before, during, or after the flight. 

That slowed Ben down a considerable amount. 

They began boarding an hour and a half later, and Ben gave Sammy a quick goodbye when he left to stand in his spot in the line. They weren’t seated together, so Sammy was left to his own devices while he waited for his section. 

After an excruciating waiting period, he found an empty row. He sat, thankful to only have a backpack and not need to worry about fighting with the overhead bins. Then Sammy shot a quick text to their group chat, and saw that Ben had as well. 

Ben: Found my seat!

Sammy: Same here

Jack: Safe travels!

Emily: Bye boys! See you when you get back!

(Read 7:56 pm)

With that, Sammy put his phone away and buckled in. The plane would take off soon. 

“Jack, get your ass over here! I haven’t seen you in a thousand years!” Lily yelled, then dived at Jack, and his knees almost buckled, but he caught her and managed to keep them both upright. He hugged her tightly, burying his face in her shoulder just as she did to him. 

“Missed you, dumbass,” he told her fondly, his voice slightly muffled by her jacket. 

He felt more than saw her smile. “Missed you too, idiot. Now come on, let’s get out of this fucking airport. It smells like people in here.” Lily pulled back and started walking. 

“What?” He laughed, bemused. 

“I said let’s goooo.” Lily turned back and smiled at him, flashing him a wink for good measure, and he just shook his head with a grin and followed his sister.

“You won’t believe the fucking car I’m driving now, Jack,” Lily told him when they reached the parking lot.

“Is it a Subaru?”

She looked at him slightly incredulously. “How’d you know?”

Jack shrugged. “Well, you are a lesbian.” 

“Would you believe me if I told you I actually didn’t know that lesbians and Subarus were a thing until after I bought the car?”

“Really? You didn’t know?”

Lily shook her head. “No, I just needed a car and Katie helped me look, and we found this bad boy,” she said, clicking her keys and unlocking the car. “And then she told me that I’d just acquired a Les-baru.”

Jack chuckled and tossed his bags in the car. Lily handed him her phone, plugged into the auxiliary cord. “You’re deejaying,” she said by way of explanation, and left the parking lot. 

Jack started playing 90’s boy band hits. 

As soon as the singer started crooning, Lily whipped around and stared at Jack, fury in her eyes. 

“Oh my god, Lily, watch the road!”

“How DARE you? Get the fuck out, you can walk home.”

Jack guffawed. “Don’t even pretend you don’t like this song, Lily.”

“I trusted you, you motherfucker.”

“I’ll play Fiona Apple next,” Jack compromised, smiling. Lily was more immune to his charm than most, but he could still get to her.

“You think you’re hot shit, huh? Fuck you. Play Criminal.” 

Jack smirked but complied, and as the funky piano notes came through Lily’s speakers, she calmed down considerably. 

“I’m shocked at you, truly,” she told him as the song ended. Another Fiona Apple song came on next, but one he didn’t recognize. “What have they been teaching you at your fancy media company?”

“That’s Ben’s fault, he turned me on to boybands.”

“Right, the short one.”

“He’s probably the same height as you, but yes.”

Lily clucked her tongue disapprovingly. “You poor, West coast gay. You’ve lost all your culture, hanging out with straight people.”

“Okay, A, how are you still this bad at geography? I do not live on the West coast. And B, not all my friends are straight. Just Ben. And maybe Sammy. But Emily is not. And also maybe not even Ben, he’s said some very gay things but he could just be cool, you know?”

“Okay back the fuck up.” Lily turned to look at him while they were at a stoplight. “Emily is gay?” She asked, with barely contained glee. 

“She has told me that she is ambiguously queer on more than one occasion.”

Lily gaped. 

“Why do you care? You’re with your hot ranger lady.”

She clucked her tongue. “True, but Emily would be like my white whale, if that wasn’t totally dehumanizing and objectifying.”

“O...kay?”

“By which I mean to say that she’s an incredible person, and anyone would be lucky to be with her. It’s kind of like how you would feel if you found out Sammy was gay, but you weren’t in love with him.”

“Slightly offended that you used my incredibly painful personal problem as an example, but whatever.”

“I was being relatable!”

“It kinda felt like you were throwing it in my face, though, Lily,” Jack told her.

She quieted down. After a few moments, she sighed. “Okay, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be insensitive.”

“I forgive you,” Jack said. 

The car was tense for a few minutes, but then Lily groaned. “Can we get over the awkwardness now so I can talk about my girlfriend?”

Jack couldn’t help but laugh. He loved her. “Yes, Lily, tell me about your girlfriend.”

“THANK YOU. First of all, you said she was a ranger, she’s actually a deputy, which is hotter, in my opinion. Secondly: the ARMS on this woman! Jack, I’m weak. I’m so weak. She kills me.”

“Well, I’m happy for y-”

“No, I wasn’t done, Jackie.”

“Don’t call me Jackie, but continue.”

“Right, anyways, Jackie, she’s so nice? She’s probably the nicest person I’ve ever met. She has this hick accent which at first I was like ‘what, that can’t be real’ but actually it is, and honestly I’m really into it now. She’s also really, REALLY good with her hands.”

“Okay! I don’t want to hear this!” Jack shouted, horrified.

“Hush, not like that. Well, yes, like that, but I meant that she’s handy, she’s good at fixing stuff.”

“Oh.”

“Yes, ‘oh’, you dumbass. She’s also amazing at making french toast. I’ll ask if she can make us some soon so you can try it.” Lily smiled to herself, her eyes on the road, her mind, clearly, somewhere else. 

Jack hesitated. “Are- were you done?”

Lily glanced over at him. “Done enough. Say what you need to, Jack.”

“She sounds lovely, and I’m really happy for you.”

Lily furrowed her brow. “What, really? No annoying sibling shit?”

“Unlike SOME PEOPLE, I don’t need to be obnoxious 100% of the time.”

“That seems like an exaggeration.”

“It is not.”

Lily laughed, and apparently, she was tired of talking, because she turned the volume up and started singing along to the music. 

“This isn’t still Fiona Apple, right?”

Lily shook her head. “It’s Kate Bush, I have some of her stuff on the same playlist.”

“The playlist labelled ‘Fiona Apple And That’s It’?”

“Yup.”

Jack laughed and shook his head, and soon, they arrived at Lily’s house. 

It was a comfortable two-bedroom, and Lily had decorated it in her signature sophisticated (but secretly dorky) style. She gave him the tour, and then pointed to the guest bedroom. “Here, I’ll order us food while you get situated,” she told him, and he nodded and moved his bags to the guest room. 

Jack began unpacking immediately, because he hated living out of his suitcase. He made excellent use of the dresser and the generous closet space. His phone buzzed as he was unpacking his toiletries, and he took it out of his pocket. 

Sammy: We made it to King Falls safely, and Betty is showering us with copious amounts of delicious food

Sammy: Ben could not be more happy

Sammy: Actually, he probably could, if a certain someone were here

Jack: Aw, that’s so sweet. Tell Ben I miss him too <333

Sammy: I was actually referring to Emily. I believe you know her?

Jack: Hmm…….Doesn’t ring a bell :/

Sammy: Very unfortunate. She’s pretty great

Sammy: She made us cookies for the flight

Jack: What? She didn’t make me any cookies!

Sammy: .... awkward

Jack: well ANYWAYS.

Jack: In case you couldn’t tell, I did not die in a plane crash

Sammy: Oh, good, I was so worried. 

Jack knew he was joking, but a part of him was pleased at the thought of Sammy worrying about him. Not because he wanted to cause Sammy distress, but, well. It was nice to think that he cared enough to be worried. 

Jack: Yeah, we ended up okay. The pilot was drunk the whole time though. 

Sammy: The whole time?

Jack: The whoooooole time. 

Sammy started tying something, but just then Lily called him from the living room.

Jack: Hold on, Lily is asking me for things

Jack tossed his phone on the bed without checking to see if Sammy had replied. 

“Chinese or Indian?”

Jack mulled it over for a moment. “Hmm… Chinese.”

“Correct.”

Jack walked over to her and looked at her phone from over her shoulder. 

“Alright, pick what you want,” Lily told him, tossing her phone at him and moving to the kitchen. “Want some wine?”

“Red or White?”

“All I have is red.”

“Ew, no.”

“Weenie,” Lily told him, and poured herself a glass. For Jack, she poured a plastic cup of Apple juice. She walked it out to him. “Here you go. Enjoy your widdle cup of apple juice,” she told him, pouting in a way that was neither cute nor funny. 

“I hate you, but thank you for buying apple juice for me.”

Lily scoffed as she sat down at the other end of the couch. “Who says I bought it for you?” 

Jack looked at her. “Lily, you hate apple juice.”

“Okay, fine, I bought it for you.”

“I always knew you secretly loved me.” 

She reached out her leg and kicked him gently. “Don’t get used to it.”

Jack tossed her phone back at her without warning, and said “It’ll be here in thirty minutes.”

The next half hour was spent talking, and Jack was not surprised at all to find that he and Lily still fit together just like they always used to. When the food arrived, Lily paid, and they sat down to eat. 

“Katie’s excited to meet you, you know,” Lily said, using her chopsticks to bring a piece of broccoli to her mouth. 

“Is that so?” Jack said.

She hummed. “Are you excited to meet her?” Lily asked, feigning apathy. But she couldn’t fool Jack. 

He put his chopsticks down with a light thunk. “Of course, Lil. She sounds great, and she obviously makes you super happy.”

Lily nodded and pursed her lips, but he saw her smile softly when she thought he wasn’t looking. 

She was predictable, and he loved her for it. 

“Alright, enough about me. Talk about Sammy now.”

He grinned at her, quick and wide. “What do you want to know?”

“Still not gay?” Lily asked with a raised brow.

Jack groaned and slumped back on the couch. “I literally don’t know! Like, that night when I called you and told you I was in love with him, he was so… genuine, and interested in what I had to say. And like, yeah, part of that is just who he is, but… I don’t know, Lil,” Jack finished softly. 

“But he hasn’t told you he isn’t straight?”

Jack shook his head. “No.”

“So he hasn’t told you he is straight, either, right?”

Jack rolled his eyes and turned his head to look at her. 

“My point, Jackie, is that you’re being heteronormative.”

“Be that as it may, Lily, part of that comes from caution, and I know you know that.”

Then it was Lily’s turn to roll her eyes. 

“Of course, I understand that. But Sammy is clearly fine with you being gay, Jack. So if you asked him out, what’s the worst that could happen?”

“It ruins our friendship?”

“No, dumbass. It’s awkward for a few months, and then you both get over yourselves and start being close friends again. But the best case scenario? Sammy is gay and into you and you get everything you ever wanted!”

“Okay, Sammy is not all I ever wanted--”

“You. Are missing. The POINT.”

“No, I’m not, Lily. You’re right, okay! You know you are. But I just-- sometimes I’m so sure that he’s not straight, but then I remember that I don’t know, because he hasn’t told me.” Jack sighed loudly and dug the heels of his palms into his eyes. 

“But you’re assuming he’s straight,” Lily said, gentler than her previous statements. 

Jack nodded. “Yeah.”

“Jack.”

He looked up at her. 

“Ask the man out. Put us all out of our misery,” She told him kindly, then reached an arm around his shoulder and pulled him to her. “Besides, he’d be crazy to say no to you even if he was straight,” Lily said with a menacing grin, and he wrestled himself out of her grip.

“Wow, thanks Mom,” he deadpanned.

“Oh, you’re welcome Jackie-bear,” She sang, and pinched his chin. 

“I’m gonna stab you with a chopstick.”

“En garde, motherfucker,” she grinned. 

Jack laughed, and they continued eating. 

“So now let’s talk about Emily again.”

Jack sighed. “Fine. Her cat is doing well, he is very stupid.”

“Love to hear it.”

“Emily is also definitely super into Ben and won’t say a damn thing about it. As far as I know, Ben won’t either. It’s driving Sammy and I crazy.”

“Show me a picture of Ben again.”

Jack complied, grabbing his phone from the guest room and showing her a picture of Jack, Ben, Emily, and Sammy.

“Damn, you got some hot friends,” Lily said with a low whistle.

Jack chortled. “I know, right?”

“Except for Sammy. Something about him just isn’t doing it for me.” Jack reigned in his indignation. He smirked. 

“Well, that makes one of us,” Jack told her, slyly.

“Ewww, get out of here, horndog!” Lily yelled, and pushed him away. He just laughed at her.

“But seriously, if Ben and Emily don’t get together before Valentine’s Day, I will actually orchestrate an entire rom-com myself.”

“Shit, I would too.”

Jack and Lily kept gossiping for several hours. They both stayed up way too late, and Jack was almost nodding off by the time Lily stretched and yawned, and declared she was going to bed. 

Jack dragged himself up to do the same. She hugged him and ruffled his hair, then exhaustedly stumbled into her room. Jack could only stare after her with a tired but content smile. 

It was good to be home. 

Even if he was in a city--and a house-- he had never been to before, he was with Lily. And she would always be home. 

Jack fell into bed with a quiet “oomph!” and fell asleep almost immediately. 

When morning came, Lily woke him up with a cup of coffee in bed. She put it on the night stand and leaned against the wall, drinking her own coffee. Jack flashed her a smile, and slowly sat up. “Thanks, Lil,” he said, and she hummed. 

“Don’t thank me, I put salt in there instead of sugar.”

He froze, the cup an inch away from his lips. He shot her a look.

She winked. 

“You think you’re so funny,” Jack told her, then took a drink, and immediately puckered his lips. “You were telling the truth?!”

Lily grinned at him. “I made another cup for you, it’s in the kitchen. And don’t worry, I’ll bring it to you myself.”

“If I taste salt in the second cup I’m going to commit a crime, Lily Wright.”

“Yeah, calling me by my full name doesn’t hold as much weight when we have the same surname, genius,” Lily said as she walked out.

“Can you just bring me the fucking coffee please!”

Lily cackled distantly. Jack groaned, and took back all the nice things he had thought to himself about her last night. 

She did actually bring him a fresh cup, prepared exactly as he liked it. He didn’t bother thanking her. 

They went out for breakfast after that. Lily knew of a hole-in-the-wall bagel place that she swore by, so they went in and ordered and sat at a dinged up metal table. It was quaint. Jack liked it.

Lily picked up their orders when they were done and brought them to the table. She dug in without restraint, and Jack, in spite of himself, followed suit. 

“So have you talked to Sammy at all?” Lily asked, wiping her mouth with a napkin. 

Jack nodded. “We texted last night. I left him hanging on accident. I’ll probably text him more today. Actually, do you mind if I apologize to him real quick?” Jack had his hand halfway to his pocket before he even saw Lily shrug. 

“I don’t care dude. I’m not mom,” she told him pointedly, and he wanted to grimace. 

“Thank fuck for that,” Jack retorted, and pulled out his phone. He typed and sent a quick apology. 

Jack: Hey Sammy, sorry I left you hanging last night, I got to talking with Lily and lost track of time. 

He replied a few seconds later.

Sammy: Oh, no worries :)

Sammy: By the way, how is Lily?

Jack: She put salt instead of sugar in my coffee this morning.

Sammy: Oh..?

Jack: [disgustingmonster.jpeg]

Jack: This is what she looks like eating a bagel. I trust you’ll save this photo and have it made into a 10x10 tapestry that I can then mail to her.

Sammy: I mean, obviously. what am I, some kind of amateur?

“Okay, I said you could apologize to him, not write a novel with him.” Lily said with a pointed look. 

Jack grimaced. “Sorry, I’ll tell him goodbye,” he replied. 

Lily shook her head and kept scarfing down her bagel. 

Jack: she’s forcing me to pay attention to her :( I gotta go

Sammy: You frown but you’re not fooling anyone, Wright. You love her :)

Jack: Lies and slander.

Jack: But actually she’s going to murder me if I keep talking to you

Jack: Bye!!

Sammy: Bye :)

(Read (9:49 AM)

“Do you flirt with him?”

“Pardon?” Jack asked, surprised. 

“Do you flirt with Sammy?” Lily repeated.

He shrugged awkwardly. “Um… Maybe once or twice?”

“You should do it more. Especially while you’re here and you’re texting him. Then it’s less high stakes because you don’t have to see him until you both get back.”

Jack hated to admit it, but it was a good idea. “I’ll think about it,” he told her, and she laughed. 

“Bullshit, you’re going to try it as soon as we get home.”

“Maybe, maybe not. You can’t prove anything.”

She chuckled at him. “Whatever you say, slick.”

When they were back at Lily’s place after lunch, Jack retired to his room and got his phone out. He furrowed his brow and tried to think of something to say. It was definitely a different tone than their other texts, but Lily was right. He pressed send. 

Jack: Alright, breakfast is over, so I’m all yours now :)

Sammy stared intently at his phone screen. “Oh, fuck,” he mumbled to himself. 

Ben looked over at him from the dining table where he sat with Betty, playing Scrabble. “Stop looking at your phone, dude. It’s family time.”

Sammy typed out a response. He frowned at it. Then sighed, and met Ben’s confused gaze. “I’m trying to flirt with Jack over text.”

Ben gaped and immediately stood up, nearly knocking his chair over and paying no attentioin to Betty’s alrmed cry. He ran towards Sammy, jumped completely over the coffee table in his way, and landed safely in a cross-legged position on the couch, right next to Sammy. “Please for the love of GOD let me help,” he begged, wide-eyed. 

Sammy sighed again, and nodded, handing Ben the phone. Ben took a moment to glance over what Jack had sent, and what Sammy had written in response, and then… he winced. 

“Wha- is it that bad?”

“You wrote ‘Just how I like it’ and then you put a winky face on it. Come on, Sammy, you’re better than this.”

“What’s wrong with it?!”

Ben slouched. “Well, it’s pretty creepy, first of all, considering you’re not actually in a relationship with him at the moment. Secondly, it’s just, like, bad.” He shook his head. “Mom come here, we need to help Sammy flirt with a boy!”

Betty stood abruptly and bolted to the living room in much the same manner as Ben, though without vaulting over the coffee table. “A boy?!” she asked, slightly breathless, her eyes just as wide as Ben’s had been. “What boy?”

Sammy scrubbed his face with his hands and nodded. Ben wordlessly handed the phone to Betty, who quickly read it. She looked up at Sammy with a tongue cluck and a disapproving look. 

“Sammy, baby, you’re better than this,” she said gently.

Sammy groaned and slowly slid sideways until he was curled up on his side on the couch. 

“Don’t worry dude, We’ll help you.” Ben smiled.

Betty sat on the other side of Sammy and nudged him until he was sitting up, then held the phone in front of all three of them.

“What about ‘Great!’” Betty suggested.

“But then where do we go from there?” Ben replied, and Betty furrowed her brows. 

“No, you’re right. It’s too awkward.”

“I’M too awkward,” Sammy told them dramatically, and they fixed him with identical, unimpressed looks. 

“Maybe act like “oh, what should I do with my newly acquired henchman,’ you know?”

Betty tilted her head. “That could work, what do you think, Sammy?”

Sammy nodded and took the phone. He typed out a reply, and showed them. They both nodded. 

Sammy: All mine, you say? That works out well, I was really needing someone to go around doing my bidding 

“Alright, I’m sending it.” Sammy pressed send, and Ben squeezed his shoulder. 

“LILY! Come here!” Jack yelled loudly.

“WHAT DO YOU WANT?”

“JUST COME OVER HERE!”

Lily groaned distantly, but entered his room with a displeased face. Jack shoved his phone in her face.

“Is this flirting?!” he asked urgently.

Lily narrowed her eyes as she read the conversation. “I mean… it’s definitely something,” she told him. 

“Right. Okay, that’s what I thought. But how can I be sure if it actually is flirting?” Jack said, attempting to get his heart rate under control. 

Lily thought for a moment. “Say something that’s definitely flirting.” 

Jack looked down at his phone, then paused. He grimaced. “I have suddenly forgotten how to flirt.”

Lily’s eyes rolled all the way back and she made an unearthly guttural sound. “You’re useless. Give the phone to me.”

Her fingers moved quickly across the keys, and she showed Jack the results.

“Damn, Lily.”

“Good damn or bad damn?”

“Damn… It’ll work?”

She shook her head and passed him the phone. “Good enough.”

Jack hesitated for a moment. 

Lily stood to walk out, but the whoosh sound of a text being sent made her pause. She turned back to Jack, who was staring in horror at his phone. 

“The deed is done, no going back now,” she told him matter-of-factly, and he nodded. “You’ll be fine, Jack. This is pretty tame for flirting, anyway,” she said before leaving. 

“Jack? You’re in love with Jack? Your friend Jack?” Betty asked, eyes wide. Sammy shook his head with a sigh and stood.

Ben nodded emphatically. “Do you remember what he looks like? I have pictures!” He told her cheerfully. 

“No, show me!” Betty cried, gleeful. 

“For the record, I’m not in love with Jack,” Sammy insisted, and not a single Arnold paid him any attention. Traitors. 

Ben scooted closer to Betty on the couch. “Okay, here he is at work. And here he is with Emily, doesn’t she look great? And this is him with a coffee. This is him after a rugby match that we all went to see...Oh! And one of my personal favorites, here he is on Emily’s couch, bundled up in blankets. Doesn’t he look comfortable?” He was showing Jack off like a new parent would show off their baby. 

Betty aw-ed and ooh-ed appropriately. Then she turned to Sammy. “He’s so handsome, Sammy,” she said with a proud smile, and Sammy couldn’t swallow down his happy smile, so he ducked and nodded. 

Jack was handsome, and Sammy missed him more than he thought he would. 

“But here’s the best one, Mom. Jack and Sammy together at dinner one night. Emily took this picture and showed it to me afterwards.” Ben beamed at Betty, and she melted when she saw the picture.

Sammy peeked over Betty’s shoulder. He furrowed his brows. He didn’t recognize the picture. It was slightly blurry, and the restaurant lighting was a bit dim, but you could see what was happening in it easy enough. 

Sammy was eating noodles (very poorly), a slightly panicked look on his face. And Jack--

Jack was gazing at him with the fondest look Sammy had ever seen. He was smiling at Sammy softly, his eyes focused entirely on the human disaster who was slurping up noodles in the booth beside him. 

And that?

Well, that was just a bit too much, now, wasn’t it?

“That’s my favorite, too,” Betty said quietly, looking up at Sammy. 

He didn’t know what to say back, so he sat down on the couch again, this time on the other end while Ben sitting in the middle. 

And, because it’s what Sammy always did, he decided to break the tension (that only he felt, for the record) by being casually self-deprecating. 

“You know, I’m a thirty year old man, it’s ridiculous that I can’t respond to a text on my own.”

Ben grimaced. “Eh… Don’t you think ‘thirty’ is a bit generous?”

Sammy turned to Ben, grateful and annoyed in equal measures. 

Then he saw Ben’s shit-eating grin. Actually, upon further consideration, he was much more annoyed than he was grateful.

“I am going to dissassemble you right here, right now, Benjamin Noah Arnold,” he said, and blindly reached behind him for a pillow to throw.

Ben immediately scrunched up to the other end of the couch, effectively squeezing Betty out as she gave an indignant “Hey!”

Sammy was all poised to throw when his phone dinged. Three pairs of eyes looked down to the phone in Sammy’s lap. 

The recreation of Cain and Abel momentarily forgotten, Sammy held up the phone so they all could see it.

Jack: Well in that case, I am DEFINITELY all yours ;)

“OH SHIT! SAMMY OH SHIT!” Ben held Sammy’s sleeve in a vice grip, turning to him with a manic expression. “DUDE!”

Sammy turned to Ben, slack-jawed. 

“Sammy, he is IN LOVE WITH YOU,” Ben insisted.

That snapped him out of it. 

“Okay, no, we don’t know that, he just… Sent a winky face. Let’s not jump to any conclusions,” Sammy said, but even he could hear how out of touch he sounded.

These days, a winky face MEANT something.

“Sammy, I love you, and you’re my son. But get your head out of your ass!” Betty cried, and Ben nodded.

“Okay, you’re right! You’re both right. But it’s too soon to say he’s in love with me. He’s… He’s flirting.”

A huge smile slowly spread on Ben’s face. “You know what this means, right?”

Sammy said nothing.

“Jack likes you ba-ack!” Ben sang, still beaming at Sammy. 

Sammy swallowed. It seemed that this was an eventuality he had not prepared for, even as he had hoped for it so badly. 

He looked at the text again. Sammy wanted to scream or break something. He also wanted to book a ticket to D.C. and kiss Jack senseless.

He did none of those things, but he did thank Ben and Betty for their help, and then told them he was going on a walk to think about some things. 

They nodded knowingly, and so he grabbed a jacket and a scarf and walked into the snowy winter. 

Sammy: Good, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Jack looked at his phone, a little breathless. He didn’t have to agonize over what to say in response. He just typed it out and sent it. 

Jack: Honestly?

Jack: I wouldn’t, either.

(Read 12:32 PM)

Sammy came back just before dinner. Ben waved a napkin at him in greeting, and then Betty told Ben to stop playing around and finish setting the table.   
But she also winked at Sammy as she did. 

He really, really loved his family. 

“Need any help, Betty?” Sammy asked, and Betty came over to him and kissed his cheek, then shook her head. 

“All good, Sammy. Just have a seat. We got latkes and sufganiyot, because it makes my boys happy, and meatloaf, because it makes me happy.”

“Clearly, we’re very traditional,” Ben remarked, and Betty shot him a look. 

“Are we lighting the candle after this?” Sammy asked, and Ben nodded as he sat down. Betty had disappeared into the kitchen to bring out the food. She brought it all out, and Ben poured them all glasses of wine Sammy and Betty passed around the food. 

Ben stuffed his face with a donut and then sighed happily. 

“Wow, you’re not even going to pretend to eat the actual ‘dinner’ items first, just going straight for donuts, hm?” Sammy snarked, and Ben glared at him. 

“Let me have this, Sammy.”

Betty chuckled and shook her head. “Who raised you to be like this, Benny? Because it wasn’t me.”

Ben nodded, his cheeks full. “Yes, it was you. Every time I came downstairs in the middle of the night and found you crying and watching a soap opera, eating ice cream straight from the tub? I internalized it, and now every time we have time off for the holidays and you make delicious food, I pay you back by stuffing my face. Aren’t you so glad you taught me such a valuable lesson?” Ben asked, leaning forward and chewing loudly in her ear. 

She grimaced and pushed him away. “At least Sammy knows how to act,” she said with a sweet smile. 

Ben made an undignified noise. “You didn’t even raise him!”

“I know, I didn’t have to,” Betty replied, and Sammy just laughed. Betty smiled at him, and he savored the way his chest felt full with warmth.

Jack’s phone dinged, and he hastily pulled it from his pocket. Lily glanced over for a moment, but then turned her attention back to the movie they were watching. 

He hoped it was Sammy, but it was Ben. He tried not to be too disappointed. He really was glad to hear from Ben.

Ben: Hey Jack! How is the capital?

Jack: It’s pretty good :) It’s awesome seeing Lily again (don’t tell her I said that)

Ben: Cross my heart and hope to die, man.

Jack: I always knew I could count on you. How’s your evening?

Ben: It’s good! It’s the first night of Hanukkah, so we had an early dinner and lit the candle, then we exchanged some presents. 

Jack: That sounds really cool :)

Jack: oh and Happy Hanukkah!

Ben: Thanks :D

Ben: But anyways, the reason I texted is because I found a bunch of the evidence I compiled that supports my claim that Howard Beuregard the Third is immortal. Can I video call you tomorrow and show you?

Jack: Ben. I would LOVE THAT.

Ben: Great !! Is there any time in particular that works best?

Jack: No I’ll be free all day

Ben: ok cool

Ben: btw… have you heard from Emily at all?

Jack: I have, actually! She told me she misses you :)

Ben: oh, she did?

Ben: That’s cool

Jack: Even over text I can tell you’re trying WAY too hard to be nonchalant

Ben: no that’s just how i react to things now

Jack: Ben,,,, no

Ben: ANYWAYS

Ben: What did you do today???????

Jack: 1. You are not subtle like, at all. 2. I will comply with your subject change but ONLY because I actually would like to talk about my day

Jack: I met Lily’s girlfriend, Katie

Ben: How did that go?

Jack: Really well! She’s the nicest person ever aside from probably Emily. She’s very friendly and respectful. She reminds me of Troy a lot actually. And she said she knows him!!!

Ben: What no way

Jack: I know. But more importantly, Lily is head over heels. I have NEVER seen her as happy with a partner as she is with Katie

Ben: AW :,)

Jack: I know :,)

Jack: By the way, you should probably text Emily. 

Ben: I will text Emily if you text Sammy again

Jack:...

Jack AGAIN?

Ben: oh no

Jack: WHAT DO YOU KNOW

Ben: NOTHING I DONT KNOW ANYTHING

Jack: BENJAMIN

Ben: OOPS I GOTTA GO FEED MY PET LAMP GOTTA GO BYE

Jack: GET BACK HERE COWARD

Jack: TELL ME WHAT YOU KNOW

Jack: YOU CANT AVOID ME FOREVER

Jack: BEN

Jack: FINE

Jack: YOU STILL HAVE TO TALK TO ME TOMORROW

(Read 9:04 PM)

“Ben is a punk ass bitch, Lily,” Jack told his sister, and she looked up from the movie. 

“Yeah, I could kinda tell.”

Jack snorted. “I might text Sammy,” he said casually.

Lily was obviously not fooled. “As long as you don’t sext with him on my couch, I don’t care what you do,” she replied.

His eyes almost bulged out of his skull. “Lily! Oh my god!”

“I mean, if you’re anything like Katie and I--”

“Lily, WHEN are you going to understand that I will never want to hear about your sex life?”

She shrugged. “Honestly? Probably never,” she admitted plainly, and Jack groaned. 

“I’m out, I’ll walk home. No need for a plane ticket. Bye, Lil, it’s been real,” Jack told her, and she snorted. 

“You’re melodramatic.”

“I’m GAY.”

“Jackie… It’s the same thing.”

“I’m going to steal every single one of your spoons and then after I leave you’re going to be like ‘fuck, where are my spoons?’ and the answer will be that I stole them.”

Lily looked at him, her face the very picture of betrayal. “...Dude, what the fuck?”

Jack shrugged. “I’m going to go text a hot guy now, so enjoy your movie!” Jack announced then, his face already glued to his phone screen. Lily laughed and shook her head, but let him go without a word. 

Jack: Happy Hanukkah!

Sammy: Oh thank you! How’ve you been?

Jack: Good! And you’re welcome. I met Lily’s gal pal Katie today

Sammy: What’s the verdict?

Jack: She is a genuine sweetheart and I give them my blessing to adopt a cat together. 

Sammy: Nice! When’s the UHAUL getting there?

Jack: 10am sharp tomorrow morning

Sammy: Does Katie own a Subaru?

Jack: No, Lily does

Sammy: she does???

Jack: yeah!

Sammy: Damn I was just going to keep making all the lesbian jokes I knew I didn’t expect any of them to be accurate

Jack: Katie did not wear a flannel to dinner. So Lily lied to me :(

Sammy: You poor thing

Jack: I know, I deserve lots of hugs and delicious food

Sammy: well i can’t actually help you out with either of those, but I can offer you a picture of Ben with jelly donut all over his face?

Jack: ...I would like to see it. 

Sammy: [SUFGANIYOT.jpg]

Jack: I… love him??

Sammy: I know

Jack: He’s so smart but also… so dumb?

Sammy: It’s baffling

Sammy: Oh no he’s reading over my shoudl

Sammy: JACK HOW DARE YOU

Jack: This is Ben I’m guessing

Jack: Hi ben

Sammy: ajd for RGBRTH39e[

Sammy: Okay I’m back. Ben stole my phone but I’m sitting on him it’s fine now

Jack: you guys are children I can’t stop laughing

Sammy: Oh shit he’s wiggling

Sammy: Hes like a bull omg??

Sammy: weo qw

Jack: I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that Ben has revolted

Sammy: I HAVE

Sammy: NOW SAMMY IS THE ONE W

Jack: Ben?

Jack: Sammy?

Jack: Ms. Arnold?

Jack: Apparition that haunts King Falls?

Sammy: Okay I’m back 

Sammy: I’m in my room and the door is locked so we’re good

Jack: Oh good thank god

Jack: I missed you Ben :)

Sammy: You’re a piece of shit

Jack: I’m kidding! No one could replace you Sammy <333

Sammy: ...

Sammy: Well you say that, but how could I possibly know?

Jack: You don’t trust me? :,(

Sammy: Not as far as I could throw you

Jack: ….. Wow have you been working out? You arms look so strong

Sammy: You are, and i cannot stress this enough: a piece of shit

Jack: your words say one thing, but your strong arms are telling me another ;)

Sammy: I should warn you, my arms are notorious liars

Jack: :/

Jack: Well MY arms are notoriously friendly, and they want to make friends with your arms :D

Sammy: you’re ridiculous

Jack: I am 10000% sure that you’re smiling right now

Jack: I would bet the farm on it

Sammy: You don’t have a farm

Jack: Wow, nice avoidance tactic, super slick

Sammy: I can neither confirm nor deny any previous smiles

Sammy: But i will tell you that my cheeks hurt

Jack: Oh no I just thought of the WORST joke

Sammy: You have to tell me now

Sammy: Like legally you have to it’s the law

Jack: Fine, but I want you to know Lily would think this is hilarious so hopefully that gives you some idea of how horrible this is about to be

Jack: okay so you say “my cheeks hurt” again

Sammy: ???

Sammy: my cheeks hurt

Jack:... which ones ;)

Sammy:???

Sammy: OH

Sammy: JACK OMG

Jack: I WARNED YOU

Sammy: jaAck IAM BLUSHING

Jack: omg send pics

Sammy: of me blushing??

Jack: yes Emily and I are compiling blackmail material on all our friends and there’s a distinct lack of material for you

Sammy: You clearly haven’t talked to Ben about this then

Jack:... OH?

Sammy: PRETEND I DIDNT SAY THAT

Jack: Im afraid I can’t :)

Sammy: Jack NO

Jack: BRB gotta text Ben

Sammy: :(

Jack: Alright I wont but only because you look so sad

Sammy: oh you’re simply too kind

Jack: OMG

Sammy: ???

Jack: I JUST FIGURED OUT WHO YOU REMIND ME OF

Sammy: I remind you of someone?

Jack: YES!! MERYL STREEP FROM MAMMA MIA!

Sammy: ...what

Jack: i can’t believe it took me so long!!

Jack: i need to tell Emily it’s bothered us for so long

Sammy: I remind you AND emily of meryl streep?

Jack: Sammy you have to capitalize her name, it’s a sign of respect

Sammy: I remind you AND emily of Meryl Streep?

Jack: thank you :) and yes!

Sammy: well. Im confused. But also strangely flattered?

Jack: you should be, it’s the highest praise I’m capable of giving

Sammy: In that case thank you

Jack: you’re welcome Ms Streep

Sammy: I know surprsingly little about mamma mia or Meryl Streep

Jack: You should watch it it’s great especially if you like abba music and ridiculousness

Sammy: Oh so Ben would really like it then

Jack: I’ll be surprised if he hasn’t already seen it

Sammy: me too, come to think of it

Jack: You should ask him.

Sammy: I will when I stop being annoyed at him

Jack: aww but you love him tho

Sammy: i mean I gUESS

Jack :)

It was past midnight by the time Jack said goodbye to Sammy. He couldn’t stop smiling as he got ready for bed. 

He walked out of his room to get water and saw that Lily had fallen asleep on the couch, curled up in a ball. He smiled. She had slept the same way since they were kids. He grabbed a throw blanket and tucked her in, then smiled at her sleepy whisper of gratitude. 

Christmas came a few days later, and Jack and Lily had mimosas and pancakes, then opened presents at noon, still in their pajamas. Katie stopped by a little after to give Lily her present (she also brought homemade fudge as an apology to Jack for not getting him a present. So. He officially loved her.)

Katie couldn’t stick around because of her own holiday celebrations, so she hugged Jack goodbye and kissed Lily for a super long time before leaving. Lily looked after her with a lovesick expression. 

It was gross, but also very sweet. He was happy for them. 

They were going to Pippa’s house for dinner. Her wife, Ida, opened the door for them with a smile. She took their coats and directed them to the kitchen, where Pippa was making tamales. She kissed Lily and Jack on the cheek and then returned to her cooking. 

“Need help, Pip?” Lily asked, gazing at the array of food. 

She shook her head. “Ida tried to help earlier, but I’ve never made them alone before and I wanted to prove to my sister I could.”

“Her competitive streak has not gone anywhere in the month since we last saw you,” Ida said dryly.

“If you really want to help you can heat up the beans.” Pippa pointed to a cold tupperware of black beans.

“She made everything except the rice and the sauce ahead of time, so be warned,” Ida remarked. 

“Everything?” Jack asked.

Pippa nodded. “The filling I started two days ago, and the masa was yesterday. I cooked them a few hours ago. And I prepared the beans yesterday.” She continued cutting chili peppers for the sauce.

Jack shook his head, impressed. “Alright chef, tell me how you want the beans done,” he told her. 

She furrowed her brow. “Ummmm… the microwave?” Pippa shrugged.

“Wow, you’re really trusting me here, I appreciate that,” Jack deadpanned.

Lily and Ida chuckled. 

“You’re my guests! Just sit down and snack on some chips, it’ll be done in a few minutes.”

Lily turned to Ida. “How long is a few minutes?”

Ida just shrugged and shook her head, her braids swinging with the motion. She held up a bowl of pico de gallo, and Lily shrugged and grabbed a chip, dipped it into the pico de gallo, and ate it.

Dinner was ready in a few minutes, though by whose definition of “a few” Jack couldn’t say. The tamales were perfect, and Pippa certainly seemed pleased with how they came out. “Suck it, Amy,” she’d said after taking the first bite. The rice and beans were also very good, and everyone ate too much, and then sat around feeling lazy afterwards. 

Then Ida remembered she made a cake. 

“Oh! I made a cake!”

Three heads had whipped around to look at her, eyes wide and excited at the promise of dessert. 

They all ate too much cake, too. And probably drank too much. 

Since that was the case, they decided to stay the night, and Pippa set them up on the couches for the evening. With morning came the promise of leftovers, and Ida fried up some eggs to have with rice and beans. The women sent Jack and Lily home with bags and bags of frozen tamales, and plenty of cake, too. 

“What should we do today, my lad?” Lily asked when they got home, dumping her keys on the counter and shoving the bags of tamales into her freezer. 

“Hmm. Kinda want to loaf around,” Jack, kicking his shoes off and diving onto the couch. 

“I’m into it. Mind if I invite Katie over?”

“Nah, but if you have sex let me know so I can leave the house.”

She winked at him and clicked her tongue. “Will do.”

She sat on the floor in front of the couch he was currently sprawled on top of, and tossed the TV remote up to him while she texted Katie.

They were watching random episodes of The Office when Katie arrived. She didn’t bother knocking, just opened the door and walked in like Lily’s place was as familiar to her as her own. 

Jack liked that. He was happy for them. She sat down beside Lily and turned around to smile at Jack for a moment, then she leaned in to Lily and rested her head against Lily’s. 

He felt suddenly conflicted. He was so glad Lily was in a strong relationship with a person who was good for her, and who truly knew her, but he was also jealous. He wanted that. He let himself ache for it, just for a moment. To feel the absence, to feel lonely. Then he breathed, and tried to let it go. 

He was happy. He had a good life. Having romantic love in his life wouldn’t change any of that. It was just something he wanted. 

This was true. But it wasn’t the whole truth. Because the whole truth wasn’t just that he wanted love, it was that he wanted love with Sammy. He wanted Sammy, full stop. He wanted to sit on the floor of his apartment and have Sammy walk right in and sit beside him, like it was natural. Like it was easy. Like it wasn’t a particularly cruel dream Jack had sometimes. 

Fuck, Lily was right. He really was prone to dramatics. He shook his head to clear his thoughts, and if his sister or her girlfriend noticed, they didn’t say anything. Probably for the best. 

They did end up spending the day by loafing around. Lily never told Jack to leave so she could have sex, which he was grateful for. Katie stayed until dinner, then had to leave.

The next day, Ben and Jack video chatted again so Ben could show him more of King Falls. Which also meant he got to see Sammy, with his hair down, looking sleepy and eating breakfast. He said a quiet hello to Jack and blushed the entire time. 

Jack had never loved him more. 

Ben told him about Kingsie and said hi to Ron. He also showed Jack the library and mentioned Perdition Woods, which was apparently cursed as hell or something. It gave Ben the creeps, and that was enough for Jack. He finished out the call with an encounter with a man Ben alleged to be a werewolf-- some older gentleman who worked in a cemetery. Ben was polite but distant, and when the alleged werewolf said goodbye to him, Ben shot Jack a nervous glance through the phone.

As if Jack weren’t already completely sold on King Falls. Ben and Jack said goodbye after that, and Jack began the arduous task of packing up. His flight was in the afternoon on the next day, and Lily would be driving him to the airport. 

Unfortunately, it came too soon, and Lily held Jack tightly in the drop-off lane of the airport. She gave him several thawed and slightly-warmed tamales to eat on the plane.

Lily kissed his forehead, smiled at him, and said “I’ll miss you, Jackie,” and he swallowed tightly.

“I’ll miss you too, Lil. I’ll text you when I’ve landed.” 

She nodded, and hugged him one last time, and then he was off. 

The flight itself was fine, a bit dull. The tamales were surprisingly good luke-warm and several thousand feet in the air. 

True to his word, he did text Lily when the plane landed, but before deboarding. Emily picked him up outside of security, and they hugged tightly before she led him to her car. 

“How was your holiday?” Emily asked, smiling.

“It was very nice,” he told her. “I missed you, though.”

Emily grinned at him. “I missed you too, Jack. And our boys, of course.”

“And our boys,” Jack echoed softly. “I haven’t told you yet, but uh… I talked to Lily a lot about how I’m, you know, in love with Sammy,” he began. She nodded for him to continue. “Well, she was characteristically blunt, but I have been, um, flirting with him. Over text.”

Emily turned to him, eyes bright and gleeful. 

“Don’t say anything, I’m not done yet.”

She ducked her head and continued searching for her car. 

“So. He’s definitely been flirting back.” 

Jack hadn’t thought it was possible for her eyes to get more bright or more gleeful, but she proved him wrong. 

“Yeah. And I’ve sort of decided to ask him out, when he gets back.”

Emily’s jaw dropped, and she somehow managed to look both aghast and elated at once. She unlocked the car with a beep of her fob and faced him, forcing him to look at her. 

“Really? You’re actually going to do it?”

Jack shrugged. He wanted her to know, but her shock was a bit… big. “Yes, I think I am. It… kinda became obvious that I can’t keep going like I have been. But, um, could you tone down your surprise a little bit? I wanted to tell you as soon as I saw you, but I’m also VERY emotionally exhausted,” he asked.

She nodded knowingly. “Of course, no problem. I mean, I am surprised, but I’m also really happy for you, honestly,” she told him, and he smiled as he climbed into the passenger side of her car.

“Thanks, Em. Can we go home now? I’m so tired and I don’t have much time to plan what I’m going to say to him when I see him on the 30th.”

Emily paused, halfway in her car, and looked at him. “You’re telling him on the 30th?”

“Yeah, they get back tomorrow but then the 31st is the New Year’s Eve party at work, and we get back to work on the 2nd.”

“You remember that the four of us are hanging out all day on the 30th, right?” Emily asked slowly. 

Jack leaned his head back against the seat rest as Emily drove out of the parking lot. “I… did not, actually. Okay, that throws a wrench in my plans.”

“Well maybe you still can! I’m sure you can find time!” 

He shrugged. “Maybe. Either way, I’m too tired to think about it too hard. I’ll tell him at some point.”

“Valid. Let’s get you home, then.”

That was the last thing Jack remembered Emily saying before he woke up at his place with Emily gently shaking his arm. “Want me to stay over?”

He nodded, still half asleep. She helped him wake up enough to get inside, and went back for his bags herself. He nearly sleep-walked to his room and collapsed on the covers, barely kicking his shoes off before falling asleep again. 

He woke up at five am the day after, sweaty and starving but well rested. Emily (a fairly early riser herself) smiled at him when he stumbled, bleary-eyed into his living room. She’d set up on the couch, a mug clutched in one hand and her phone in the other. 

“There’s coffee,” she said in lieu of a greeting, and he tiredly stepped forward, clutched her head between his hands, and kissed her hair. 

“Thank you,” he’d mumbled, and Emily snickered into her coffee. 

When his coffee was made and he was feeling marginally more awake, he plopped down beside her on the couch and spread a throw blanket over them both. “Did you sleep good?” He asked. 

She nodded. “I did. Did you?”

“Like the motherfucking dead, Ms. Potter,” he replied, and they clinked their mugs together. 

“Are you coming with me to pick up the boys?” 

Jack pursed his lips. “Is it bad that I kinda don’t want to? I would just like to settle in a bit more before I have to confess my love to one of my best friends and potentially risk our friendship.”

“It’s not bad, take as much time as you need. However... you are definitely delusional if you think Sammy would ever not want to be your friend. He adores you. We all do.”

“In like, a gay way, or…?”

“Well Ben definitely likes you in a gay way.”

Jack laughed. “In another life Ben and I are married and you and Sammy are a crime fighting duo with INSANE chemistry, but you put it aside for the sake of the job.”

“I’d watch the hell out of that if it was a movie.”

“Right?”

“Nevertheless, I really don’t think I’m Sammy’s type,” Emily said with a wry smile. 

“Here’s hoping,” Jack replied, and toasted her again.

They made breakfast together about an hour later, and ate it on the couch. They were both still wearing their pajamas, and Jack looked to Emily with a mouth full of toast. 

“What time are you leaving?” He asked. 

Emily appeared to be doing some mental math. “Uh the flight gets in at 1:00, so I should leave at 11:30 probably,” she replied. 

“Should we send you with snacks in case they’re hungry?”

Emily nodded. “Yes, I love that idea. What are you thinking?”

“Well, what do you not mind getting all over your car?”

“....Soup.”

Jack barked out a laugh, loud and unexpected. “Sure, let’s make the boys some soup,” he replied. 

“No, probably sandwiches. Maybe some chips. Do you think I could trick Ben into eating something healthy if it was covered in chocolate?”

“Depends on how much chocolate there is.”

“Fair point,” Emily admitted. 

In the end, they did make sandwiches, along with some chips and chocolate-covered strawberries. Jack made sure there was enough left over so he could have some, as well. Emily left before long, and said goodbye to Jack with a kiss on the cheek and a chocolate strawberry for the road. 

Jack sent Sammy a quick text telling him not to eat at the airport and then set about cleaning and unpacking. It made the time go by quickly (thanks in part to the Mamma Mia soundtrack,) and Jack had just finished his shower when Emily opened his front door with Ben and Sammy in tow. 

He greeted Ben first, with a brief (but excellent) hug, and then Sammy with a longer (and somehow more excellent) hug. 

They four of them sat down in Jack’s living room, with Ben already talking a mile a minute about their holidays. Jack watched him with no small degree of fondness, and briefly met Sammy’s eyes to see the same expression mirrored there. 

“So I guess now I know why political corruption is so rampant in my hometown, but hey, what are you gonna do?” Ben said with a shrug, and damn, Jack kinda wished he’d been paying more attention to what Ben was talking about. 

Sammy snorted, and then turned to Jack. “How was it saying goodbye to Lily?” he asked, and Jack shrugged.

“I mean, it always sucks, but we manage. And we talk often, anyways. I hope someday soon, we’ll live in the same place again, but until then I guess we’ll settle for brief visits during holidays,” he said. Sammy’s expression darkened when Jack had talked about moving, but it was gone so fast Jack half-thought he imagined it. 

He made brief eye contact with Emily, though, and the look in her eyes told him that it definitely happened. Which… he probably should not analyze at the moment. 

They kept talking until dinner, when Sammy and Ben had to leave to get unpacked. Emily stayed and the two ate dinner together, but she left afterwards. And then it was just Jack, feeling inexplicably lonely in his one-bedroom apartment. 

“Is it weird that I’m this excited?” Ben asked, and Sammy glanced at him, shifting his weight from his heels to his toes, back and forth. 

“You’re almost always this excited. It is weird, but it’s also pretty characteristic.” Sammy replied easily.

Ben chuckled and elbowed Sammy in the side. Emily opened the door a moment later, her eyes bright and hair looking both disheveled and perfect simultaneously. Sammy could almost hear Ben swoon. She welcomed them in and then disappeared into the kitchen, with a shouted “make yourselves at home!”

Ben kicked off his shoes and put the gifts he carried onto her dining room table. Sammy did the same, and then they followed her into the kitchen. She had apparently been baking for several hours, and the island was a mess of flour and dough trimmings. 

“Sorry it’s such a mess, I’ve been baking, as you can probably tell,” she said with a grin. “I’ve got a pie in the oven, a cheesecake in the fridge, some rolls that are proofing right now, and Jack is bringing a cottage pie.”

“Do you need us to do anything?” Sammy asked, at the same time Ben said “What’s a cottage pie?”

“A cottage pie is a shepherd’s pie, but with beef instead of lamb.”

“Shepherd’s pie has lamb in it?” Ben frowned. 

“Traditionally,” she replied. “And no, I don’t need anything, but if you guys want to just hang out with me in the kitchen I wouldn’t object,” she smiled, and Sammy and Ben immediately and wordlessly sat down at the bar stools by her island.

The doorbell rang, and Emily froze, her hands covered in flour. Sammy took pity. “I’ll get it,” he offered, and she shot him a grateful look before he stood and walked to her door

Sammy opened the door, and Jack looked surprised to see him. “Oh, you’re not Emily,” he said, and Sammy smirked.

“Damn, what gave it away?” 

Jack didn’t miss a beat. “The cuticles. Emily’s cuticles are always a wreck because of all the physical work she does. Yours, on the other hand (pardon the pun) look like you haven’t done a single day of work in your life,” Jack replied. 

Sammy hesitated. “Thanks? Was that...a compliment?”

Jack furrowed his brows, and said in mock-seriousness, “Well, if that’s how you want to take it,” and shrugged, before walking in. He beelined for the kitchen and Sammy followed him, watching as he kissed Emily’s cheek and placed the foil-covered casserole dish in his hands on a vacant counter. 

“What can I do?” Jack asked, and Emily told him to work on setting the rolls out for when the pie was done baking. 

Sammy stared at her. “I thought you didn’t need any help,” he said. 

Emily cringed slightly, and Jack looked at Sammy with great confidence, (which Sammy did NOT find wildly attractive, okay) and then said “It’s because I’m the only one she trusts to work in her kitchen.”

Sammy’s outrage won over against his delight at Jack’s confidence. “Wha-! Emily, you’ve had my cooking!” he nearly shrieked. 

Emily winced. “Yeah, but I didn’t want Ben to feel weird being the only one not doing anything,” she admitted, and just then Ben looked up, a piece of raw dough half-dangling out of his mouth. 

He slurped it up, and then said “Huh?”

Jack laughed, then came up behind Ben and hugged him, resting his chin on Ben’s curly hair. “Never change, Benny.”

“Okay, I won’t. Also don’t call me Benny.” Ben tilted his face upwards and batted his eyelashes at Jack, who laughed and pressed a kiss to his temple. 

Sammy was definitely not jealous. Emily was looking at him like she knew he was jealous, which was rude and strange, because he WASN’T. At all. 

Then Jack pressed himself closer against Ben’s back, leaning down the considerable distance so he could put his chin on Ben’s shoulder. 

Sammy inhaled sharply, and--

Okay, yeah. He was jealous. Emily was still looking at him with a knowing look, and tilted her head towards the hallway. He sighed quietly, but followed her out. 

“If you like him, you should just tell him,” she told him gently. 

He tried in vain to hold onto his last shred of mystery. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he lied, and she looked at him with an eyebrow raised. 

He caved immediately.

“Okay, fine, you’re right. But I just-- God, I’m nervous, Em.”

Emily squeezed his arm. “It’s going to be okay, alright? What are you so afraid of?”

He looked down, and swallowed thickly. “I just… I can’t lose him, Emily. I cannot lose him. It would wreck me knowing that something I did drove him away when I could have just kept my mouth shut.”

“Telling him would not drive him away, Sammy. He cares about you. You’re one of his best friends. That would never happen.”

Sammy took a deep breath, and tried hard to internalize her words. He nodded with a faint smile. “Same goes for you, you know.”

She looked at him, confused. 

“If you like him, you should just tell him.” He looked at her knowingly. 

Emily groaned and buried her face in her hands. Then she looked up at him. “I hate it when I’m right,” she said, and Sammy laughed and hugged her. 

“Shoe’s on the other foot, now,” he told her, and she leaned her head against him. 

“They’re so good, aren’t they?” she said softly, looking at Jack and Ben in the kitchen. Ben kept eating raw dough and Jack kept looking gleefully disgusted. 

Sammy couldn’t keep the smile off his face. “Yeah. They really, really are,” he replied, and she shot him one last knowing look before heading back in to check on her pie. 

Sammy stayed in the hallway for a moment longer, watching his three best friends laugh with each other, and he felt an ache within him, halfway between longing and overwhelming love. 

Ben sat back with his hands on his stomach, looking as stuffed as Sammy felt. The four of them moaned and groaned, delighted by Jack’s cooking and resentful of their own hubris. 

“I overate.” Emily lolled her head to the side and met Ben’s eyes, and they both started laughing. 

“Owww,” Ben whined. “It hurts my stomach to laugh.”

“Jack, don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re not allowed to make Shepherd’s pie again,” Sammy half-joked.

“It’s a cottage pie.”

“Jack, don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re never allowed to correct me again,” Sammy amended. 

Jack fake-winced. “Ooh, that could be a problem,” he said. Sammy wanted to laugh, but didn’t dare.

Emily stood and slowly made her way to the kitchen. “Who wants pie?” she called. 

Jack, Sammy, and Ben all looked at each other for a moment. 

“Yeah, sure, I’ll take some,” Ben said, at the same time Sammy said “Well, maybe just a small slice--” and Jack shouted “HELL yeah!”

Emily brought out four small plates and the entire pie. 

“We’re gonna end up eating this whole thing, aren’t we?” Ben sighed. 

Jack and Emily nodded. 

“Alright. Sammy, you wanted a little slice?” Ben said, shrugging and picking up the knife and a plate. 

Sammy nodded, and Ben proceeded to dish up four neat slices of pie (of varying sizes).

Do you guys want to do presents during pie or after pie?” Jack asked.

Ben gasped exaggeratedly. “During!” He hopped up with a truly impressive amount of energy and took his slice of pie to the couch, where he waited expectantly for everyone else to follow. 

“I guess that answers that question,” Jack said with a grin, and joined Ben on the couch. Emily and Sammy shared a fond look, and moved to the living room as well. 

Sammy sat on the floor, in the space between Ben’s legs and Jack’s legs. Emily took up space in her large armchair. She passed out the presents and then motioned for Ben to start. He grinned a little in that excited, loveable way he had, and ripped open his first present. 

It was from Jack, and it was a thick book on the paranormal. He laughed, quick and unexpected, and then sincerely told Jack that he loved it. “You’ll find out why I laughed in a second,” he said. 

Jack raised an eyebrow, and then opened the present that Ben had given him. It was the same size and shape as the one Jack gave Ben, which, naturally, was because Jack and Ben had given each other the same damn supernatural guide. Jack threw his head back and laughed, and then moved forward to hug Ben. “You know, I did seriously consider buying myself a copy when I got your gift,” he said, and Ben smiled and ducked his head. 

Then Jack turned to Sammy. “Your turn, Stevens.”

Sammy picked up a gift bag and took out the tissue paper, then held up the soft, handmade scarf that was inside. He looked at Emily in awe.

“Do you like it? I know your neck gets cold, so…” she trailed off and looked at him anxiously. 

“Emily, I love it,” He told her genuinely, and wrapped the scarf around his neck. “Holy shit, Em. Guys, feel this.” Sammy held one end of the scarf up, and Ben reached out to feel it. 

“Whoa! Emily! Can I commission you for one of those?” Ben asked, wide-eyed. 

“Well, first of all, I’ve seen your pay stubs, and you couldn’t afford it, Benny,” she said, somehow managing to sound kind even then. Ben’s expression hadn’t soured in the slightest. “Secondly, wait until you open yours before you go asking for commissions,” she finished.

Sammy felt a hand at his shoulder, and the hairs at the back of his neck stood up. He turned around the other way to see Jack feeling the scarf. He didn’t meet Sammy’s eyes for a moment, but then he looked up, a strange intensity in his voice when he quietly said, “This is really nice.”

Suddenly it was WAY too hot in Emily’s living room for a scarf. 

He swallowed thickly and nodded, absently pulling at the center of his scarf until it pulled free of his neck. He was almost positive Jack was still looking at him while Emily took her turn. 

She bit her lip as she ripped the paper, and gasped when she saw what was inside. The gift was from Ben, and it was a large glass bottle of perfume.

Sammy sent Ben a subtle wink. It was the perfect gift for her; something she would love, but never buy for herself. 

“Benny, I--” she started, and Ben laughed nervously. His face was bright pink.

“Do you like it?” Ben asked, eagerness showing plainly in his face. Emily softened even more, if that was possible, and wordlessly stood and walked to the couch. She crouched beside Ben, planted a firm kiss on his cheek, and then hugged him tightly. Sammy heard a muffled “I love it, Benny” from within Ben’s shirt. 

He looked like he could have died right then and there and not have had any regrets. Sammy smiled, then looked at Jack. 

“I guess I’m up now, huh?” Jack said, and lightly shook the present in his lap. Sammy suppressed a grin that was somewhere between embarrassed and pleased when he noticed Jack’s present was from him. 

Jack unwrapped the box tantalizingly slowly, and Ben watched in badly disguised impatience until finally Jack just tore the rest of the paper off (with a mischievous smirk at Ben, who only sighed in relief). Inside was a framed picture of Sammy. 

Only it was a picture of Sammy pre-sneeze; the very same picture that Ben had sent to their group chat a few months earlier.

Jack looked at it with a bewildered smile, and Sammy figured some explanation was due. “So, obviously, this is from me,” he began, and Jack nodded. “Ben and I had this bet, and the loser had to give a framed picture of themselves that the winner got to choose. Clearly, I lost,” Sammy deadpanned. “Ben picked this picture because he is an idiot.”

Ben stuck his tongue out at Sammy, who very maturely did not respond. 

Jack laughed at their antics, and then said “I don’t know who I should thank more, you or Ben,” Jack told Sammy with a pleased expression. He was looking down at Sammy, the picture frame still in his hands.

Sammy hadn’t noticed that he was staring back until Emily cleared her throat helpfully, and then Sammy was looking away and Ben was announcing it was his turn again, meanwhile, from the corner of Sammy’s eye, he saw Jack look back to the picture frame with a soft expression.

He had to fucking tell him. And soon. 

“Okay, this one is from me,” Emily stated as Ben aggressively removed all the tissue paper from a gift bag. He quickly pulled out the contents, a big, knit blanket, black except for small, cartoonish ghosts at the bottom. Ben beamed at it for a second, then clutched it to his chest and looked at Emily with potentially the most adoring expression anyone had ever seen, and emphatically told her that he loved it. 

He held the blanket out for Sammy and Jack to feel, who immediately reached out. It was extremely soft, probably softer than the scarf Emily made him. “Yes, I will be stealing this,” Sammy said to Ben, who instantly pulled the blanket away from him. 

Jack chuckled while Ben thanked Emily, and then Jack motioned for Sammy to open his last present.

He and Ben had already done their own gift exchange back in King Falls, so Jack’s present was the only one Sammy had left to open. He did so, and pulled out a card and a braided leather bracelet. The bracelet was exactly his style, which made him grin at Jack. He opened the card, and inside was a gift card for his and Jack’s favorite coffee shop and the note “By accepting this, you are legally obligated to buy me a coffee” along with a small doodle of a snowman with sunglasses that said “happy holidays”. 

Sammy thanked Jack and put the gift card in his wallet, then asked for Jack’s help putting the bracelet on. He probably could have done it alone, but never let it be said that Sammy didn’t have moves. 

Emily opened Sammy’s present for her next, which was a pair of earrings shaped like mushrooms, which she squealed at when she saw. Then it was Jack’s last present, which was from Emily, and was a handmade mothman plush toy. Jack laughed and stood to hug Emily. The last present left was Emily’s, from Jack. It was a frog necklace (to go with the mushroom earrings, apparently) and a thick book on data organization, which made Emily’s eyes light up. 

Jack and Sammy both ended up volunteering to clean up after presents and dinner, which Emily reluctantly agreed to. Ben managed to convince her to go on a walk with him, and Sammy shot him a wink before he disappeared out of Emily’s front door, with Sammy’s new scarf wrapped around his neck. 

Jack started on the kitchen while Sammy finished tidying up the living room from their gift wrap chaos. 

“Alright, the living room is complete. Tell me what to do,” Sammy said to Jack, who was loading Emily’s dishwasher. 

“Could you put the leftovers into tupperwares?” Jack asked, and Sammy nodded. They worked mostly in silence, with Jack humming under his breath as he rinsed dishes. It was nice. Painfully domestic. 

It made Sammy want to do crazy things, like confess love to someone he’s known for less than a year. Or propose. 

Sammy shook his head to clear it, and placed the final box of leftovers into the fridge. It had taken a bit of reorganizing, but Sammy had managed to make it fit. 

He turned around just as Jack started the dishwasher, and they wordlessly looked over to the substantial pile of dishes that hadn’t fit in the dishwasher. “I’ll wash, you dry?” Jack offered, and Sammy nodded and grabbed the dish towel that Jack held out. They filled the sinks with water and then stood side by side, quietly scrubbing, dunking, or drying dishes. 

Sammy glanced over and saw that Jack’s brow was furrowed. He was scrubbing a put like it had personally offended him, and it was only when his hand slipped and slapped the water, effectively spraying both of them that Sammy asked him if he was okay. 

Jack looked at him, his eyes widened slightly. “Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, I’m okay. Just thinking, I guess.” 

“Anything you want to share?” Sammy asked, caught between hoping desperately that Jack would spill his heart and wanting Jack to say ‘nevermind’ or ‘no’ or anything that would let Sammy avoid this thing between them for just a little longer. 

Jack swallowed and gave a little smile, bittersweet and quick. “Yes. But… not tonight,” he responded, and Sammy nodded. He understood. 

Meanwhile his traitorous heart was lamenting and he had to forcibly remind himself that he had asked for this.

They finished up the rest of the dishes just as Ben and Emily returned. Sammy was glad; the strange tension between him and Jack had only built over the course of the evening, and he needed the welcome distraction that his friends provided. 

Unfortunately, Ben and Emily returned with a strange tension of their own: both of them blushing and refusing to meet the other’s eyes, all while wearing matching sheepish grins. 

It was adorable, even if it didn’t quite help Sammy’s problem. 

He and Ben decided to head home shortly after that, and Sammy asked Ben about it when they were in the car. 

Ben blushed again, noticeable even in the dim lighting. “Um… Emily told me that she knows where she is, with, um… With us, I mean. And that she thinks she has a good idea of where I’m at, but she needs to know for certain. She basically said that if I asked her out, she would definitely say yes.”

Sammy grinned at his friend and squeezed his shoulder, the angle kind of awkward because of the car seating. Ben smiled, and Sammy recognized the hopeful look Ben wore. 

“So when are you going to ask her out?”

“Tomorrow for sure. I almost did it tonight, but something stopped me.” Ben looked out the windshield with a pensive expression. 

“I’m happy for you both,” Sammy said softly, and Ben smiled.

“Are you going to tell Jack soon?” Ben asked. 

Sammy nodded. “I was watching him tonight, and I just-- I honestly feel like I can’t afford to stay quiet any longer. I need to at the very least tell him I’m gay, if not just confess that I’m in love with him all in one,” Sammy admitted, and didn’t realize his mistake until it was too late. 

Ben’s smile widened, and he laughed. “I knew it! I knew you were in love with him! I mean, to be fair, the guy is incredible, it’s very hard not to be,” Ben said. 

Sammy sighed and leaned his head back against his seat rest for a moment. “I give up, you win. I’m in love with Jack Wright. Hopefully he loves me back.” Sammy’s tone was joking, but neither he nor Ben missed the weight that his words still conveyed. 

“Sammy, you should tell him tomorrow.”

“I know, you’re right. I’ll… I’ll try,” he said. Ben smiled at him softly, and the rest of the drive home was quiet, both boys lost in their own thoughts.

Jack’s smile was big, charming, and fake. Emily’s smile was slightly smaller, just as charming, and about as fake. 

They mingled with coworkers from other floors and pretended to laugh at unamusing jokes, clutching flutes of middle-of-the-road champagne in their hands. The company New Year’s Eve party was dull every year, but it was always good to go, if only for the free drinks and the chance to rub shoulders with the higher-ups. 

“When are Ben and Sammy getting here?” Jack leaned in close to Emily. He did not miss the teasing look one of the employees sent him, glancing between Jack and Emily. Wow, heteros were annoying. 

“Thirty minutes?” Emily said in reply, her voice low as she glanced at her watch. They hadn’t been there for very long, but Jack already wanted to go home. He looked at Emily, and she answered his unspoken question with a quick nod. They said polite goodbyes to their coworkers and Jack and Emily walked away, with Jack’s hand on the small of her back.

“Thanks for being my date to this, by the way,” Jack said, removing his hand from her dress as soon as they were far enough away from prying eyes. They had hidden out near some desks: in sight of the party, but out of the way enough to have some privacy. 

Emily chuckled. “I’m always happy to be your beard, Jack,” she replied, and he snickered into his champagne flute. 

“So, based on how anxious you look and the fact that you keep asking when the boys are getting here, I’m guessing you didn’t ask Sammy out last night?” Emily leveled him with a look. 

He sighed and shook his head. “I almost did, when we were washing dishes. It was domestic as hell, Emily. I almost got down on one knee right then and there,” Jack responded. He drank his champagne.

“I basically told Benny I want him to ask me out,” Emily said in lieu of a reply. 

“What? When was this?” Jack looked over at her.

She sighed. “When we were on our walk. I said I needed to be sure of where he was, you know. With us, I mean. I think he wanted to do it right after I finished talking, but I asked him to wait.”

“Why didn’t you ask him yourself? And don’t try to tell me you’re old fashioned, because we both know that’s not it.” Jack leveled her with a look. 

Emily laughed sarcastically. Then she sobered slightly, and bit her lip. “I’m not sure. It felt strange, whenever I thought about it. I wasn’t… afraid of rejection, necessarily. It felt like it wasn’t the right thing to do, I think.”

“I admire your clarity. Although this does mean that you will have to be the one to propose. Fair’s fair, after all,” Jack joked, and she elbowed him in the ribs. 

Jack’s phone buzzed in his pocket, and he fished it out. 

Sammy: In the parking lot now, see you soon!

Jack: We’re on level 5, near the desks. Call me if you get lost :)

(Read 11:42 PM)

“They’re here,” Jack said, grinning. 

Emily laughed at him, and they stayed there until Ben and Sammy found them, both looking a bit harried by the crowds of journalists and office-goers. 

“Hey, how's it going?” Ben said a little breathlessly. He ran his hand through his hair, and Jack glanced at Emily. She was looking at Ben like she wanted to drag him into a storage closet and have her way with him. 

Jack bit his cheek to keep from smiling. “It’s alright,” he said. “Emily and I insinuated we were together and the heteros bought it, because we're genius masterminds.”

Sammy furrowed his brow. “They almost 100% assumed you were together because you’re both hot, not because you’re masterminds,” he said jokingly. 

Jack brushed past the whole ‘hot’ thing. There’d be time for that later. 

Emily and Ben laughed at Sammy’s joke, and Jack remembered to join in at the last second. His companions kept the conversation going, but Jack didn’t pay attention. He was trying to toe the line between casually glancing at a friend and staring at Sammy with his hair down and styled slightly, wearing a suit that fit him perfectly. 

He was a fucking vision, and Jack just… wanted. 

He forced himself to listen as Ben stuttered out a compliment to Emily, and Sammy sent Jack a knowing smile. 

Emily blushed and looked him up and down, then bit her lip. “You look handsome, Benny,” she said. Ben choked on his reply, and Sammy touched Jack’s elbow and nodded his head towards a different part of the room.

They quietly left Ben and Emily to their own love struck devices, and Sammy leaned in close to Jack before whispering, “is it just me, or is Emily about to seduce Ben?”

Jack chuckled. “No, she’s definitely putting on the moves. I couldn’t be more proud.”

“They grow up so fast, don’t they?” Sammy joked, and Jack laughed. His brain rudely reminded him there was no real reason for Sammy to whisper, or to be as close to Jack as he was. 

But he didn’t seem to want to move. And Jack didn’t either. 

That is, until his boss spotted him from across the room, and then Jack was grabbing Sammy’s warm hand in his and pulling him out onto the balcony, away from annoying bosses or straight coworkers.

The hurried nature of their migration left Jack and Sammy standing even closer than they had when they were inside. Sammy was just… staring at him. A cool breeze ruffled their hair slightly, and Jack was finding it very hard to concentrate at that moment.

Jack swallowed, and glanced down. “Sammy, I-“ he began, but Sammy beat him to it. 

“Jack, can I-“ Sammy had said, at the exact same moment Jack spoke. 

“Sorry, you go,” Jack told him. 

Sammy was quiet for a moment. His gaze flicked down to Jack’s lips. When he spoke, his voice was a rough whisper. 

“Jack, can I do something?” He asked. 

Jack barely noticed his coworkers screaming the countdown from inside. 

He nodded. 

“8! 7! 6!” His coworkers shouted. 

Sammy leaned in. 

Jack couldn’t stop looking between Sammy’s eyes and his lips. 

“5! 4! 3!”

Sammy didn’t move any further. He was waiting for something. For permission. 

Jack nodded, breathless.

“2! 1!”

And then Sammy was kissing him, and Jack wrapped his arms around him and didn’t let go.

The city around them was lit up with fireworks, and Sammy just kept kissing Jack. The world could have been ending, for all he cared, and Jack wouldn’t have paid any attention to anything except the man in front of him. Sammy was so bright, so magnetic, Jack couldn’t help but be pulled in. He wanted to stay in that moment forever. 

When Sammy pulled away, Jack was embarrassed to admit he made a small noise of outrage. His arms were still wrapped around Jack, a small consolation. Sammy opened his mouth. 

“So I’m gay. And… I’ve liked you since I met you. I really wanted to tell you. I’ve been agonizing over it for months, actually. I was scared,” he admitted. 

Jack smiled. “Same here. I had a huge crush on you when we first met. The project we did was slowly killing me.”

“Oops. Want me to kiss it better?” Sammy said with a wicked grin. 

Jack pretended to gag. “Never say those words to me again, Stevens.”

“You don’t want me to kiss it better?” Sammy asked again, pulling Jack closer to him and wrapping his arms around Jack’s shoulders. 

“Ew, no. I want a divorce.”

“We’re not even married.”

“Okay, I take it back. Never say THOSE words to me ever again.”

Sammy threw his head back and laughed, which by now had to be one of Jack’s favorite sounds. 

“Come on, let’s go find the kids,” Sammy said, grabbing Jack’s hand and leading him back inside. He didn’t let go of Jack’s hand, even when their coworkers glanced in surprise at their joined hands. 

They eventually found Emily and Ben by the drink station, gulping down water. They both had messy hair and a light sheen of sweat on their faces, and Ben had a bit of lipstick smeared on his lips. 

Jack and Sammy shared a look.

“Well. How’s your new year going?” Jack asked, and Sammy stifled a laugh. 

Emily and Ben looked up from gazing adoringly into each other’s eyes or whatever and looked to the duo.

Emily instantly noticed Jack and Sammy’s clasped hands and gasped dramatically, then grabbed Ben’s arm and pointed to Jack and Sammy. 

Ben furrowed his brow but followed her pointing, and then his eyes widened and his jaw dropped, and he looked between Jack and Sammy for some sort of confirmation. Sammy gave a pleased little shrug. Ben melted immediately and rushed towards them with his arms outstretched, enveloping the two much taller men in a slightly sweaty group hug. 

“YOU GUYS!” he shouted, and Jack laughed. 

“Us guys? What about you guys!” Jack exclaimed with a pointed look at Ben’s messy hair. Ben blushed a deep pink and tried to subtly wipe the lipstick off his mouth. Emily was entirely unfazed. She winked at Jack. 

“So who kissed who?” Emily asked with a knowing grin. 

Sammy raised his hand a bit sheepishly, and Jack couldn’t help but smile.

“I am so happy, this is the best night ever. You guys are boyfriends now!” Ben nearly vibrated with excitement. 

Jack and Sammy exchanged brief, alarmed looks, and nearly tripped over each other in their rush to inform Ben that they ‘hadn’t discussed labels yet.”

Ben was not impressed. He swung an arm around Emily and gave them a look so no-nonsense it would make Betty Arnold proud. “You’re boyfriends,” he told them, in a tone that left no room for argument. 

Sammy rolled his eyes. “Okay, but anyways, can we go now? I feel like I’ve mingled enough and I just want to eat breakfast food with my best friends. And… my boyfriend,” he added with a shy smile to Jack. 

Emily nodded emphatically and grabbed Ben with one hand and Jack with the other so the four of them made a sharply-dressed human chain. 

They crashed at Emily’s place that night, and borrowed various oversized and comfortable clothes she had acquired over the years. They drank coffee, and ate pancakes, and fit together like parts of a well-crafted machine. 

Jack looked at the people around him. They were his family. It wasn’t just him and Lily anymore. It was these miraculous people sitting across from him, snorting with laughter. 

He loved them.

Jack squeezed Sammy’s hand under the table and drank another sip of coffee. 

It was going to be a good year.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Almost there folks! A baby chapter is next. I’m talking 2k, max. This chapter was 14k and that’s an insane amount of words for one chapter. Needless to say I have learned my lesson. 
> 
> I’m hoping to update and finish this bad boy soon!  
> Thanks for reading :-)


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Epilogue, one year later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two updates in one night heyoooooo

“Heyyy Roomie!” Ben exclaimed, plopping down on the couch beside Jack. 

He raised an eyebrow. “I’ve lived with you guys for a month now. Are you still going to call me ‘roomie’ every time you see me?” He asked.

“Obviously,” Ben replied, and stole a carrot from Jack’s plate on the coffee table. Jack looked at him, betrayed, but Ben just shrugged and stood. “What time is everyone getting here?”

“Ten-ish.” 

“Wow, Sammy’s complete aversion to punctuality has really rubbed off on you since you moved in.”

“For your information, Benjamin,” Jack began, “the invites we sent out had ‘Ten-ish’ written on them, because we wanted to convey a tone of nonchalance. It’s a casual get-together. Your addiction to schedules is why we decided to play fast-and-loose with the time frame,” Jack said. 

“What’s this about fast and loose? Are you cheating on me with my brother?” Sammy called.

“Yeah, we’re eloping tonight, so we’re gonna miss the party,” Jack replied.

“Sad,” Sammy answered. Ben snickered. 

Sammy walked into the living room and bent down to hug Jack from behind the couch. Jack turned around and tilted his head to kiss Sammy, and Ben sighed and “awww’ed.”

Sammy raised his eyebrows. “What’s all that about? We’ve been dating for a year, Ben. You see us kiss, like, every day.”

“I know!” Ben defended. “I just love you guys, okay?” 

Jack smiled and opened his arms, and Ben sat down on the couch and leaned into him.

“Speaking of love, when is Em getting here?”

“Soon, I think. She said she and Lily were going ring-shopping.” Sammy was still leaning across the back of the couch. 

“When is Lily going to propose?” Ben asked.

“Any day now, she told me. She’d never admit it but she’s nervous,” Jack replied.

“Coward,” Sammy remarked with no small degree of fondness. Jack looked at him knowingly.

“I’m so excited. Would Lily wear a dress or a suit?” Ben asked.

Jack just shrugged. “Probably a suit, but I could be wrong. Katie would definitely wear a suit.” 

“They’re such a cute couple, I’m so happy for them,” Ben said with a grin.

“I’ll tell Lily you said that.” 

“Ugh, don’t, shell punch me in the arm again and call me ‘sport’.” 

Sammy laughed. “It’s because you remind her so much of Jack,” he said. 

“Ugh, don’t even. And besides, you act like you and Lily aren’t the exact same person,” Ben replied.

Jack smiled. “The only original person in our group is Emily, but I think that’s because she’s the only real one and the rest of us exist in a computer generator simulation.”

“Please be joking,” Sammy begged. 

“He’s not, and he’s also correct,” Emily said, shrugging off her coat.

Ben hopped up to greet her. “Hey, I didn’t hear you come in,” he said, and kissed her. 

Lily entered behind her. “Hey sport,” she said to Ben, and slugged his shoulder. He rubbed it with a grimace as she sat down in an armchair. 

“You got the good or what, Wright?” Sammy asked. 

Lily rolled her eyes and tossed him a velvet box. He caught it with one hand and opened it, revealing a thin gold band and a small, simple gemstone. 

Ben began weeping almost as soon as he saw it.

“She’s gonna love it, Lily,” Jack told his sister, and she smiled as Sammy threw the box back.

“When are you gonna do it?” Sammy asked.

“Never, if you people keep nagging me,” Lily said with a performative glare. 

Sammy just looked at her.

“But probably this weekend,” she admitted.

Jack stood and walked to his sister, then forced her to scoot over so they could share the same single-person arm chair.

“I’m happy for you guys,” Jack told her, and she sent him a small, warm smile.

“Alright, enough about me,” Lily announced. “What do we need to do for this shindig tonight, huh?” 

With that, the mood changed, and everyone began preparations for their New Year’s Eve party. 

Jack and Sammy and Ben’s house was brimming with people. The Jensens were there, as were Troy, Ron, and Herschel and Cecil. Katie and Lily were making out in a corner somewhere, and Ben was playing the gracious host as he walked around offering more champagne and apple cider to guests.

Jack stood in his nice shirt, one arm wrapped around Sammy’s waist and his head against Sammy’s shoulder. Sammy was talking to one of Troy’s friends, an FBI agent named Reagan, he thought, but he couldn’t quite remember. He was barely pretending to listen, and Sammy shot him a few pointed looks, but he didn’t move. 

“Are you guys talking about King Falls?” Ben asked from across the room. He bounded over to them, and Jack started paying attention again. 

“We weren’t, actually. Excuse me, I have to make a phone call,” Reagan said, all professionalism even then. They nodded at her, and she walked out. 

Troy and his wife Loretta walked towards them, too. “What’s this about the ol’ hometown?” Troy asked with a smile.

“I mean, nothing, really,” Sammy began. He looked like he was going to say more, but Ben interrupted.

“Jack, I forgot to tell you! Ron caught a few underwater pictures of Kingsie and he wanted to show us!” 

“Really? I thought the lake water was too murky to see anything clearly,” Jack replied, extremely interested.

“So did I, but I guess he found a workaround,” Ben said.

Sammy chuckled at them. 

“Sammy, would you still love me if I forced you to follow me to Ben’s podunk hometown?” Jack asked. 

Sammy snorted. “No,” he replied instantly.

“Sammy!” Ben cries, scandalized on Jack’s behalf.

Sammy shrugged. “Alright, fine. Yes, of course, you know I’d follow you anywhere,” Sammy amended. His tone was long-suffering, but Troy and Ben both let out identical coos even so. 

“Wow, chump.” Jack winked at Sammy.

“Also King Falls is almost as much my hometown as it is Ben’s. You realize that, right?”

“Mmmmmm… that’s debatable.” 

“It’s- no, it’s not.” 

“If it’s not debatable then how come you’re debating me?” Jack asked with a shit-eating grin, and Sammy rolled his eyes.

“You’re every bit Lily’s brother, aren’t you?” He asked. 

Jack’s reply was cut off by the sound of metal clinking lightly against glass. Emily stood in the center of the room with a champagne flute and a knife, holding them aloft and tapping them together. “Hi, everyone! I have a quick announcement to make, if I could just have your attention for a brief moment.

The room quieted, and all eyes looked to Emily. She smiled, and then her eyes found Ben. “As you all know, Benny and I have been together for a year now,” she began, and a round of applause went up as Ben grinned widely.

She chucked, and continued. “It’s been one of the greatest years of my life, and it didn’t take long at all for me to realize tha-“ she swallowed thickly. “For me to realize that Ben Arnold would be it for me.”

Jack saw Ben’s eyes widen out of the corner of his eyes. 

“And if you know Ben, then you know he’s a huge romantic, and he isn’t shy about it,” she said with a laugh, and the crowd echoed her mirth. 

“Which is why I decided to, in front of all our friends and family,—“

Emily then pulled a box from her dress pocket. “—get down on one knee—“ 

She kneeled.

“And ask: Benjamin Noah Arnold, will you marry me?” 

Emily held out the box, opened to reveal a ring. 

Ben was staring at her, eyes wet and mouth agape. Sammy nudged him with his elbow, and Ben snapped out of his stupor. He nodded emphatically, and started making a sound that was a mix between a laugh and a sob. He nearly ran to Emily and she stood right as he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her soundly, to the cheers and applause of the entire room. 

“That’s a yes, by the way,” Ben said tearfully when they broke apart, and Emily laughed through her own tears. 

Lily came to stand beside Sammy and Jack. “That short motherfucker,” she said darkly, and Jack laughed. 

“Mad that Ben and Emily stole your thunder?”

“I’m mad at Ben, not Emily.”

“Why only Ben?”

“If he wasn’t such a romantic ass, Emily wouldn’t need to propose in public right in front of my girlfriend,” she explained.

“Your logic is flawed.” Sammy stated.

“I will pour my wine down the front of your shirt.” 

Sammy laughed and mussed her hair up obnoxiously, and she spent a few futile seconds trying to yank his bun out. She gave up eventually, and returned to Katie, apparently deciding that it would be more effective to send Sammy occasional glares from a distance.

“How come you never do anything like that for me?” Sammy asked Jack, nodding to Emily and Ben, who were accepting congratulations from their friends and family. 

“If I proposed to you in public, you would say no,” Jack replied, and Sammy shrugged. 

“True. You could do it in private, though,” He added. His tone and posture was casual, but Jack knew better. 

This was a Hint. Sammy wanted him to pay attention. 

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Jack said evenly, and Sammy grinned at him. 

When the crowd had thinned, Jack and Sammy approached Ben and Emily and gave them a big hug. 

“Congratulations, you two,” Jack said softly, and Emily smiled up at him. “For the record though, I’m very shocked you didn’t tell me you were going to propose,” Jack said. 

“It was kind of spur-of-the-moment? I saw all those rings with Lily, and it suddenly became imperative that I bought one for Benny,” she said. 

“In that case, I forgive you. Who’s your best man?” 

“It’s you, obviously,” Emily tolled her eyes. 

Jack smiled. Then he furrowed his brows as a thought occurred to him. “Ben. You’re not moving out, right?”

“No!” Ben cried. Then, to Emily, “I’m not moving out, right?”

Emily shook her head. “I’m definitely moving in with you guys.”

“The house is kind of small, maybe we should get a bigger place,” Sammy said. 

“There’s cheap houses in King Falls,” Ben mentioned lightly. 

“It’s a nice town,” Jack agreed, just as light.

“It would be nice to work at an actual library,” Emily remarked.

“So… King Falls?” Sammy asked.

“King Falls,” Said Ben.

Emily nodded. “King Falls.” 

“Yeah, I guess so. King Falls,” Jack smiled at his friends. The party continued around them, and Jack couldn’t help the joy that spread in his chest. 

Sammy looked at him with a soft expression, and Ben and Emily were grinning excitedly, and the four of them were going to be just fine. No matter what.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we’re done. Thank you all for reading, and to those who bookmarked and commented and gave kudos, it meant a lot. This was my first multichap fic and it was a really great experience. I’m extremely reluctant to start another one, but hey, Who knows. I have a feeling I’ll start something new sooner than I think.
> 
> Thank you all once again, and I hope you have a good week :)


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